


Founding the Junior Avengers (aka SM:H)

by Kizmet



Series: What If [11]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Civil War Team Iron Man, Gen, Mentor Tony Stark, Not Spider-Man: Homecoming Compliant, Worried May Parker (Spider-Man)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-10
Updated: 2018-12-15
Packaged: 2019-08-21 15:26:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 23,806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16579166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kizmet/pseuds/Kizmet
Summary: Dr. Helen Cho was never a vigilante, she never kept huge secrets from the people closest to her to protect them or because she feared that they wouldn’t support her.  Helen Cho was the mother of a teenage genius who frequently believed that he knew better than the adults around him.When Tony Stark’s search for backup during the Avengers’ Civil War turned up a teenager from Queens, Helen considered how she would have felt had it been her son.  To Helen, telling May Parker wasn’t a threat, it was a moral obligation.Or “Spider-Man: Homecoming” starts with Aunt May in the know.





	1. Just Business

**Author's Note:**

> As always, interview canon is a blast. Spider-Man: Homecoming has a title card that sets CACW happening eight years after Avengers. <https://www.cbr.com/spider-man-homecoming-timeline-incorrect/> According to Kevin Feige that’s not a mistake and fans shouldn’t assume that the movies happen in the same year in which they are released. According to Joe Russo “it was a very incorrect eight years.” So according to Interview canon, the eight years referenced in SM:H was either a mistake… Or it wasn’t. Take your pick. This is why I don’t give much weight to interview canon. 
> 
> I’m going with there being four year between Avengers (2012) and CACW (2016). That CACW happens in the spring of Peter’s freshman year and SM:H happens in the fall of his sophomore year.

Just as Adrian Toomes and his crew started their day, cleaning up the Chitauri battle site, a group of suits showed up. “Attention, please! In accordance with Executive Order 396B… …all post-battle cleanup operations are now under our jurisdiction. Thank you for your service. We’ll take it from here,” the older woman leading them said.

“Who the hell are you?” Toomes demanded.

“Qualified personnel,” was the smug reply from one of the woman, Anne-Marie Hoag’s, subordinates.

“Look, I have a city contract to salvage all this, okay, with the city, so-” Toomes argued.

“I apologize, Mr. Toomes, but all salvage operations are now under our jurisdiction,” Ms. Hoag said. “Please turn over any and all exotic materials that you’ve collected… …or you will be prosecuted. S.H.I.E.L.D.’s already lost one incredibly dangerous artefact, if this stuff starts turning up in the wrong hands someone’s neck is going to be on the line and the Mayor wants to be sure it’s not him.”

“Ma’am, what am-- ?” Toomes began desperately. “Please. Come here. Hey, lady, come on. Look… …I bought trucks for this job. I brought in a whole new crew. These guys have a family. I have a family. I’m all in on this. I could lose my house.”

“I’m sorry, sir. There’s nothing I can do,” Hoag put him off.

“Maybe next time, don’t overextend yourself,” Her asshole associate had to add.

“What’d you say?” Toomes growled then slugged the guy. “Yeah. He’s right. I overextended myself,” he said as half of Hoag’s entourage pulled guns.

“Put them down,” Hoag ordered. She turned back to Toomes, cold professional filling her voice. “If you have a grievance, you may take it up with my superiors.”

“Your superiors. Who the hell are they?” Toomes demanded.

“It’s a new agency, the Department of Damage Control,” Hoag said handing Toomes a card. “It’s a joint venture between Stark Industries and the government to safely oversee the collection and storage of alien and other exotic materials.”

“Now the assholes who made this mess are paid to clean it up?” Herman Schultz, one of Toomes crew demanded.

“Yeah, it’s all rigged!” Phineas Mason added.

Ms. Hoag scowled at them, “First would you have prefered that Mr. Stark and the other Avengers simply stood back and let the Chitauri have their way? They didn’t ‘make this mess’, they stepped in to defend the city when it was attacked by an outside force. Second, Damage Control is a non-profit organization operating under the mission statement of removing Exotic Materials from circulation. We’re getting our operating expenses covered and nothing more.”

“That’s more than I would have gotten,” Toomes protested.

“You run a salvage company, Mr. Toomes. You made your bid to the City assuming that you’d be recouping your losses in the clean-up by selling what you salvaged,” Hoag reminded him. “After further consideration of the materials in question the U.S. government does not want them put into circulation.”

“If you let us do what we contracted with the city even if I didn’t turn a profit I’d be able to pay my guys, make back a little of my lay out,” Toomes argued.

Hoag gestured to the card she’d given Toomes, “Take it up with my superiors,” she said. Then she shrugged, “They might even take you up on that… Since you underbid the cost of the job.”

Several nights later Toomes was going over his books while his crew finished sorting the day’s haul, segregating the Exotic Materials that would have to be turned in to Damage Control from the garden variety scrape that they could resell. “The city contract won’t keep us afloat without something more profitable than bent rebar and broken bricks to sell,” Toomes exclaimed slamming his ledger shut. “The smug bastards could have given me what they were going to give Damage Control for the clean-up but no I signed a fucking contract!”

On the other side of wearhouse, Phineas Mason held a Chitauri crystal up to the light “A lot of cool stuff in here,” he remarked. “A shame that it’s all being locked up in those bunkers Damage Control is building.”

Toomes looked thoughtful. “You know Mason… You’re right. It is a damned shame that all this stuff is ending up in Damage Control’s hands. I tell you what. Let’s keep it. The world’s changing. It’s time we change, too.”

* * *

**Four Years Later**

“After nearly seventy years famed best friends Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes have been reunited in a story no one could have predicted.”

Peter fiddled with the volume on his earphones as he walked home from school, listening intently to the newsfeed from Europe.

“Two days ago the UN Summit on the Rights and Responsibilities of the Enhanced was bombed, the primary suspect is the Winter Soldier, a legendary Soviet assassin now known to be Sgt. James Buchanan Barnes, of the Howling Commandos. Sgt. Barnes surrendered himself to the Avenger Melinda May in Bucharest shortly before Steve Rogers, Captain America was involved in a violent altercation with UN peacekeepers and an unknown Enhanced in a black panther costume in that same city. In the wake of the tragedy in Lagos Captain Rogers presence in Bucharest, regardless of his actions there, was in defiance of the law, he was apprehended by the Vision and Virginia Potts, in her debut as the third pilot of an Iron Man-like armor. It is widely speculated that Captain Rogers’ illegal entry into Bucharest was motivated by a desire to prevent Sgt. Barnes’ arrest. Within hours of being detained at the JCTC in Berlin, Barnes and Rogers escaped custody, leaving several JCTC agents dead in their wake.”

Peter had been following the UN Summit avidly, wondering- Worrying about what it would mean for Spider-Man, for him. _‘Would the police start going after me? I mean if I’d stopped Him in the convenience store it would have a Good Samaritan thing: Something happened. I was there. I helped. And everyone would know about me. And Uncle Ben would be here to help me figure it out._

_‘But I didn’t. I let Him go and Uncle Ben’s gone._

_‘I made a costume, a mask, and went out to try to make up for what I didn’t do. And I’m a vigilante. This stuff I do, going out getting into fights, beating people up, even if they’re bad people it’s still pretty much illegal for me to be doing this. But I can’t not do it, not if I can stop even one other person from losing their Uncle Ben.’_

“-As of yet, there have been no sightings of either fugitive.

“Today we are speaking with Ms. Virginia Potts, CEO of Stark Industries. Ms. Potts, you were instrumental in Captain America’s arrest in Bucharest, will you continue to play an active role in the ongoing manhunt?”

There was an unusually long silence from America’s most unflappable CEO.

Peter found himself holding his breath, as he waited for her answer. Was Pepper Potts an Avenger now? Was Captain America the enemy? Had the world turned on Cap or did Cap not care about anyone except his old friend? _‘Even if Bucky Barnes was brainwashed and that’s why he bombed Vienna shouldn’t he still be detained? Even if it’s not his fault he’s still hurting people. If it were me, if someone was using me to hurt people, I’d want to be stopped.'_ The hair on Peter’s arms stood on end, without thinking he jumped backwards nearly six feet, narrowly avoiding being hit by a car. The driver honked at him and Peter flushed as he realized he’d been so intent on the newscast that he’d unthinkingly stepped out into traffic.

“I asked Tony for the Rescue Armor because I couldn’t handle being being helpless when the bad guys came for him anymore,” Pepper said.

_‘So glad no one knows I’m Spider-Man,’_ Peter thought as he tuned back into the broadcast after getting safely across the street. _‘It’d kill me if anything happened to Aunt May because of me.'_

“So ‘Rescue’...”

“I wanted to be able to rescue myself, or Tony as need be,” Pepper said. She laughed, “You have no idea how awful being a damsel in distress really is. I don’t want to be member of the Avengers, I don’t want to go out looking for wrongs to right. I just don’t want to be helpless when my home or my family are under attack. I went to Bucharest because right now the Avengers are stretched thin. And between Rhodey’s injuries in Vienna and the knowledge that the Winter Soldier assassinated his parents Tony shouldn’t have been the one to go after Sgt. Barnes. Asking Tony not to be compromised by this situation is asking him not to be human.”

“So are you saying that regardless of what happens Iron Man will not involve himself in the UN’s continuing attempts to apprehend James Barnes and Steve Rogers? Even as the loss of life and damage to property continues to escalate? Twelve dead and thirty-eight injured in the Vienna bombing. Six UN peacekeepers and twenty Romanian citizens hospitalized in Bucharest after the freeway tunnel collapse. Five dead during Barnes’ and Roger’s escape from the JCTC in Berlin…”

“You’re right,” Pepper interrupted. “If things continue to escalate I’m afraid Tony will be forced to intervene. Sometimes there there is no one else. Rhodey has yet to regain consciousness. Melinda May and Sam Wilson are both unEnhanced, in spite of all their hard work and skill they’re a poor match up for a super soldier. I have only begun training with my armor. Vision is one man, one being. The situation is far from ideal. One of the things the Avengers were hoping to accomplish at the UN Summit was a framework to aid in navigating such predicaments in the future, but today we don’t have a good plan in place when the best person to deal with a situation is too close to it to not be compromised. All we can do is our best to recognize when someone is compromised but unable to recuse themselves and give them whatever support we can.”

“So should we expect-” the interviewer began only to be cut off abruptly by a different voice. “Captain America has been sighted at the Leipzig-Halle Airport. Civilians are being cleared from the terminals as I speak in anticipation of another violent confrontation between law-enforcement and an Enhanced Individual.”

Peter ran the rest of the way home. He remembered the Stark Expo, Iron Man saving him and letting him feel like a hero instead of a victim. He remembered stacks of Captain America comic books under his bed, dog-eared from multiple reads. _‘It used to look so easy, figuring out who the bad guy was.’_ He thought, and quick on its heels, _‘I’m going to have to figure out what sort of good guy I am. I’ve got a mask, no one knows who I am… I don’t have to follow the rules. It’s my choice: Am I the sort of person who listens to what other people think is right or do I do what I think is right, no matter who disagrees?’_

He opened the door to his Aunt’s brownstone, “I’m home, May. Are the Avengers on the TV? They’re all over the radio.”

“Helen Cho dropped by today,” May said, her tone brittle.

“Helen Cho? The Helen Cho? Dr. Helen Cho? Lead Researcher at U-Gin Helen Cho?” Peter babbled. “Where did she stand? What did she touch? I’ve got to call Ned, he’s going to implode!”

“She had something to tell me. I didn’t want to believe it but...” May held up a bundle of red and blue clothes.

Peter’s face went pale.

“We just lost Ben and your out picking fights with muggers?” May demanded. “All those fights, lately. You were going after armed muggers! Peter, if I lost you too...” May started crying.

Peter dropped his backpack and practically tripped over the couch in his hurry to hug her. “Don’t cry! I’m sorry, please don’t cry!” he stammered. “It’s- it’s I’ve got these powers. And- and when you can do the things that I can but you don't and then the bad things happen- They happen because of you.”

“Ben,” May realized. “You think you could have saved Ben.”

“I could have,” Peter confessed. “If I’d just- I let him go- at the Convenience Store, I didn’t get involved and he killed Uncle Ben and I could have stopped him, I could have-”

“You could have been the one who got shot,” May said. “You couldn’t have known what was going to happen but if you get in a fight with someone who has a gun they could shoot you.”

“But my powers, I’ve got this really cool- well I call it a Spider-Sense because-”

“You could have died!”

Unnoticed in the background the TV broadcasted superheroes battering each-other mercilessly. Heroes hauled off in handcuffs or fleeing to become fugitives or loaded into ambulance along with the soldiers who’d been harmed in the clash with heroes.

 


	2. Stark Industries (Avengers) Internship

“This is going to be the most incredible summer of my life!” Peter enthused, talking into his cellphone. 

In the front seat Happy Hogan turned around and asked, “Who are you talking to?”

“No one,” Peter said. “Just making a little video of the trip.”

“Oh, thank god,” Happy sighed. “The other brat won’t NOT talk to me.”

“Other…” Peter said sounding uncertain.

“Yep,” Happy replied. “You’re not the only one. There’s Dr. Cho’s brat, the brat who never shuts up, you… The two powered brats are in Juvie. Trust me, you’re all brats. Even the princess brat who just got here last week.”

“So, uh, why do they call you Happy?” Peter asked, his brain going on a tangent.

Happy frowned forbiddingly. “Tony, let’s leave it at that… Spiderling.”

“It’s Spider-Man,” Peter corrected. “I mean Peter.”

“Whatever you say,” Happy said with a knowing smirk. 

But they had turned up the road to Compound and Peter didn’t have eyes for anything else. “Wow…” he breathed as he flipped the camera on his phone around. “This is it, the Avenger’s Compound. This is really happening. Oh my g- That’s Tony Stark.”

Happy rolled his eyes. “Breathe,” he reminded Peter. He pulled up in front of the Compound steps. 

Peter practically tumbled out of the car along with his bulging duffle bag. “Peter Parker? Well, you’d better be or Happy and I’ll be having words,” Tony said. He didn’t bother introducing himself.

“Tony, you’re being an ass,” Happy complained. “Of course I brought the right kid.”

“Right… And the incident of 2004 never happened,” Tony said.

“Damn right it didn’t,” Happy replied.

“You sure you don’t want to stick around for the summer?” Tony asked his former driver. “Keep an eye on the future of S.U.D.D.S., nice low stress gig, give your ticker a little R&R?”

“A) Stop hacking my medical records, Tony,” Happy complained. “Confidential means none of your beeswax. And B) You are the only one within a hundred miles of the Compound who considers watching explosion-crazed teenagers to be a low stress activity… And that’s only because you’re worse than they are about lab safety.”

“A) My bad but I worry when you don’t tell me stuff… There’s a chance it’s because I’m judging based on what I don’t want to tell you guys- Don’t take that as an invitation. B) The kids are great and it’s been…” Tony checked his watch. “Five and a half hours since anyone blew anything up and that was Shuri.” He turned to Peter, “She’s supposed to be the responsible one. A genius, even smarter than me, one of Wakanda’s top researchers… I think we’re corrupting her nicely. Or she’s just relaxing enough to blow stuff up for shits and giggles after being here four days. She gets to stay for another three weeks, officially she’s here to coordinate treatment efforts for Barnes, Palamas and our latest find: Ex-S.H.I.E.L.D. kid, and I do mean kid, that HYDRA got to. Of course his case is complicated by the part were he’s frozen in a self-generated block of ice that’s the only thing keeping him from dying of a gunshot wound. But that doesn’t mean Shuri has to pretend to be a grown-up twenty-four/seven.”

“What?” Peter managed. “Gun-shot?!” 

“S.H.I.E.L.D.’s full of assholes,” Tony explained. “The more I have to deal with them the more I see how they missed their HYDRA infestation, I mean it would be like looking for black silhouette on a black background. The kid wasn’t anyone special’s best friend, still he was their student. They didn’t send anyone after him when HYDRA took him, barely looked for other options before putting a bullet in him. Don’t you worry about it, shutting down the latest outbreak of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s our problem not yours.” 

Tony put his hand on Peter’s shoulder and steered him toward the Compound. “You’re here for your internship. Don’t mind me if I’m rushing things. It’s nothing personal but after Rogers’ little rampage, not to mention S.H.I.E.L.D., I’ve been busy soothing ruffled feathers. You’ll see less of me than I’d hoped this summer but don’t worry. Rhodey and May- Agent May, not your unexpectedly hot Aunt May- will be in charge of your Avengers Training- Pre-Avengers Training? Well, the 101 on smacking bad guys around- Before that I need to show you your suit. That onesie you’ve been running around in is not to be tolerated.” 

Peter gave Tony an indignant look but before he could decide if he needed to address the onesie comment first or the ‘hot Aunt’ comment Tony had moved on. “Now, the science side of things-”

“Science?” Peter squeaked, totally derailed.

“Of course,” Tony said as they stepped into an elevator. “Did you think we were just going to ignore that you invented that webbing of yours yourself? Yes, you’re going to be sciencing. I’m keeping you for next-gen S.U.D.D.S., the future Avengers can BORROW you when they need someone who catch three thousand pounds moving at forty miles per hour but Peter Parker is going to be needed in the science community in a half a dozen years. Can’t wait to see what you come up with when you’re fully trained and well equipped. So, I took the liberty of looking up your last few science fair entries and I think Dr. Ross is your best match… Well really, I would have loved have Dr. Banner mentor you, would have been great for him, but he’s been MIA for a couple of years. Betty’s really amazing, you’re going to love her. Now, I’ve got forty minutes before I need to be on a plane, don’t worry we’ll fit in introductions for her… I should introduce you to the other kiddies before you get the unofficial welcome of being caught in the crossfire between Harley’s potato gun and DUM-E’s fire-extinguisher.”

“There’s a real internship program, it’s not just a thing because of Spider-Man?” Peter asked. 

“Yes. Well, after the stupid shit they got dragged into in Germany it’ll be a few years before you meet the twins. And like I mentioned, Donnie’s still a block of ice in Doc Cho’s lab. Which leaves Shuri, Princess of Material Science, Up and coming Coder-Extraordinar Amadeus and my personal ME minion, Harley. I’m not going to lie, Spider-Man’s why you caught our attention,” Tony said. “But you’re a great addition to the crew. And whatever Happy implied, don’t worry about the explosions: No one’s lost a body part yet and eighty percent of the concussions are mine. Experience is a great teacher, I showed Harley the videos of me testing out repulsor powered flight before I turned him loose and he is RELIGIOUS about wearing a helmet. 

“But first- Present time!!” Tony gestured grandly to the blue and red spider-themed armor on display in the center of the lab. 

“WOAH! Oh, my God,” Peter exclaimed.

Tony grinned, “Put it on.” 

“What the-- ?” Peter exclaimed as the suit fitted itself to him. “This is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen!”

* * *

**Two Months Later**

Peter navigated the busy Midtown Campus while texting on his way to the first class of the day. 

//You’re bored? Try Tennessee,// Harley sent. 

//I just feel lioij-// Peter accidentally sent a mash of characters as he was forced to dodge out of the way of Flash Thompson’s brand new car. 

//???// Harley sent.

“What’s up, Penis Parker?” Flash laughed.

Peter rolled his eyes. //Just Flash.//

//Say the word and I’ll send the Mark XVI potato gun,// Harley replied.

And suddenly Flash didn’t seem so important. //Thanx but I’d get expelled for sure.//

As Peter made his way to his locker morning announcements were read, including reminders of the homecoming dance.

“Join me, and together……we’ll build my new LEGO Death Star,” Peter’s long time best friend Ned intoned coming up behind Peter with a Palpatine Lego figure

“What?” Peter exclaimed. “That’s awesome. How many pieces?”

“Three thousand eight hundred and three,” Ned said proudly.

“That’s insane!”

“I know. You want to build it tonight?”

“No, I can’t tonight,” Peter shook his head. “I’ve got the Stark--”

“- Stark internship,” Ned finished. “You were gone all summer. I could barely even get you on the phone… Which is not a problem for your new Internship friends, I’ve noticed, in class.”

“Yeah, well, hopefully, soon it’ll lead to a real job with SI,” Peter justified.

“That would be so sweet,” Ned admitted.

“Right?”

“He’d be all, ‘Good job on those spreadsheets, Peter. Here’s a gold coin.’” Ned shrugged. “I don’t know how jobs work.”

“Maybe a little more: ‘Everybody down! It’s about to blow! Okay back the spreadsheet. Don’t tell Pepper I was in on this and you can have an extra gold coin.’ But that might be SI specific.”

“Seriously?” Ned asked. 

Peter nodded, “It’s not like Mr. Stark was my mentor, or even in the building that much, but it’s his building so any restraint about not blowing shit up tends to go out the window once he’s onboard.” 

“So in the interest of your very limited free time, I’ll knock out the bones of the Death Star at my place,” Ned suggested as Liz Allen walked by. “And then, I’ll come by afterwards. For the most part, the difficult thing is the base of it. The top half we can knock out in two hours, tops.”

“That’d be great,” Peter said, without having heard a word. He spent most of the rest of the day distracted from his classwork by Spider-Man with occasional diversions to gazing besottedly at Liz until finally, finally the last bell rang and he was free to change into his costume and patrol.

* * *

As the sun set, Peter perched on a fire-escape far above the city streets and pulled out his cell phone. “Uh, Karen?” he asked talking into the wrist of his suit. 

“Peter! What can I help you with today,” a bright cheery voice replied.

“Um- Who’s available at the Compound?” he asked. 

“Vision is on call in case of emergencies,” Karen replied. 

“Well, I don’t know that it’s an emergency,” Peter hedged. “Just sort of a question? So I stopped a grand theft bicycle. Couldn’t find the owner, so I just left a note. I also helped this lost, old Dominican lady. She was really nice and bought me a churro…. And um, I might have broken a guy’s nose by mistake. How was I supposed to know it was his car? He was jimmying the lock and everything!”

“Hmmm,” Karen said thoughtfully. “I’m scanning for complaints… Gotcha! Vision recommends forwarding the complaint to Ms. Hill so she can set up paying his doctor’s bill proactively. You’ll probably want to start writing your apology and expect a call because you’re going to get grilled, not sure if it’ll be Ms. Hill, Mr. Stark or Colonel Rhodes.”

“Gee, thanks Karen,” Peter said sarcastically.

“Vision says: Good job, with the lost lady,” Karen offered. “Not to be too cynical but good PR helps and you probably did save her day. Ummm… I’m not sure what the best course of action with the bicycle would have been, neither is Vision but he says maybe you should have turned the bike over to the police along with the thief.”

“I think Viz might be missing the part where I avoid the police because they don’t much like me,” Peter said.

“That is a problem,” Karen agreed. “I know! You could ask the Mr. Stark, he’s going to be-”

“Wait!” Peter exclaimed cutting her off as he noticed a group breaking into the ATM machines across the street. “Finally, something good! Now, no distractions Karen.”

Across the street, one of the robbers laughed, “Yo, this high-tech stuff makes it too easy.”

“Three months of hauls to pay for it but we’ll make it up in one night,” the second robber said as he cut through the face of the ATM machine like it was butter.

“Okay, go, go, go,” the first robber said as the face of the machine came free, revealing it’s reserve of bills.

“Oh, nice.”

“We can hit, like, five more places tonight,”

Spider-Man thought for a moment then posed himself casually before clearing his throat. “What’s up, guys? You forget your PIN number?”

The robbers, all wearing Avengers masks, turned on him raising their weapons.

“Whoa! You’re the Avengers. What are you guys doing here?” Spider-Man bantered as he webbed one of the weird looking and jerked it out of the first robber’s hands, using it to smack two of the guy’s friends. “Thor. Hulk. Good to finally meet you guys. I thought you’d be more handsome in person.”

_“Always secure their weapons!”_ Agent May barked in his memories. _“Leave it laying, someone you’d rather didn’t will pick it up.”_

Spider-Man whipped the gun up towards the ceiling and secured it with a bit of webbing. “Iron Man. Hey, what are you doing robbing a bank?” he asked hanging upside down narrowly dodging the third robber’s punches just to aggravate the man. “You’re a billionaire.”

Spidey sent the guy flying then took a second to web the gun he’d dropped to the ground. While he did the fourth robber managed to get a bead on him. The future gun emitted a shimmering blue, anti-gravity field. “Hey! Oh, this feels so weird,” Spidey exclaimed as he began to float. “What is that thing?” 

Spidey managed to get a few fingers on the ground. “I’m starting... to think...you’re not...the Avengers!” he exclaimed as he shot a web at the cash box then used it to smack the guy holding the gun in the back of the head.

Mr. Delmar watched the battle from his store across the street as he dialled 911. “What’s your emergency?” the operator asked.

Money swirled through the bank’s entry way as Spidey jumped around evading the masked robbers. “Uh…Spider-Man is fighting the Avengers in a bank on 21st Street,” Mr. Delmar reported,

Back in the bank, Spidey webbed the last of the weird future guns to the wall, along with the robber. “Alright guys, let’s wrap this up. It’s a school night. So, how do jerks like you get tech like this?”

One of the robbers recovered enough to scramble across the floor. “No!” Spidey exclaimed as he got his hands on one of the guns. 

Then Spider-Man grinned as the guy tugged futilely at the webbing he’d coated it with. “Thank you, Agent May!” he exclaimed as he webbed up the last guy. He took a few minutes to add an extra layer of webbing to each of the robbers and to web their weapons to the roof.

“Karen, you think I should hold on to one of the guns for Mr. Stark?” Peter asked. “Or should I leave them for the police.”

“Since Mr. Stark will be at your home by the time you get there, I think taking one would be acceptable,” Karen said.

“WHAT!!” Peter exclaimed. “Mr. Stark’s at my house!! Why didn’t you tell me sooner? Do you think it’s a mission? My first Avengers mission?” Then another thought occurred to him. “Oh no, it’s the guy with the car. He’s suing me isn’t he?” 

“I believe your Aunt called him,” Karen replied to Peter’s absolute dread.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tony getting some help from people who actually do combat training on a regular basis pays dividends even if Tony still has a lot of other things going on in his life to distract him from mentoring.


	3. Balance

Peter crawled into his bedroom window and quickly changed into his street clothes. 

His Aunt’s raised voice drifted up the stairs. “Peter quit band. He quit the Robotics Lab. I just got a call from the advisor for the Academic Decathlon, Peter quit the team a week before Nationals! He’s distracted in class, he stood up his best friend since Kindergarten tonight-” 

“The kid who wanted me to autograph his Lego Death Star?” Tony Stark asked.

“And then I find this, empty in his room!” May accused. Peter peeked around the door and saw her holding out the storage case for his new spider-suit. “I fully supported Peter spending the summer training with his abilities but- He is fifteen Mr. Stark! Fifteen! And you’re encouraging him to go out and play vigilante!”

“Ideally, we’d want Spider-Man working with the police-” Tony began.

“While wearing a mask so they don’t know that they’re working with a FIFTEEN-YEAR-OLD!” May shouted over Tony. In the hall Peter winced. “He needs school. He needs friends. He needs activities. His whole life shouldn’t revolve around these powers, Peter is more than that.”

“Which is why the Internship is 100% real, it’s not just about fighting,” Tony protested. “I know he and Harley text constantly, he’s stayed in touch with both Shuri and Amadeus, we’re not isolating him from his peers. Believe me, I know how shitty it is when you’re fifteen and everyone around you is legally an adult, I won’t do that to Peter.” 

“No, you just create a situation where all his friendships and all his activities revolve _your_ plan for Peter’s future. How do you think it looks to colleges when Peter takes an internship and promptly drops every other extracurricular activity, when even his grades suffer because he’s apparently incapable of balancing school and work?”

“I’m not actually telling him to go out and patrol the neighborhood… Or to drop his extracurriculars, _I’d_ never tell _anyone_ to drop Robotics Lab,” Tony pointed out and Peter cringed.

May slapped her hand down on the silver Spidey-suit case, “You’re encouraging it.”

“He was out there before I ever got involved, in pajamas!” Tony protested.

“I told him to stop!”

“Like that’s going to work,” Tony scoffed. “He was going behind your back for months before Helen tattled.”

Peter’s expression twisted with anguish at hearing his actions described as going behind his aunt’s back.

“ _She_ acted like a responsible adult,” May accused. “Peter is fifteen. When he turns eighteen I won’t have a say anymore. But until then, as his guardian it is my job- No, my privilege to keep him safe and to give him the brightest future I can. That means keeping his choices open. I don’t want him limited to being part of your team before he even understands what he’s getting into. The Avengers Compound is…” May shook her head. “The glamour of it, of being part of your world must be amazing to an a lonely teenager like Peter. But he should have a chance to understand what else is out there before he commits to your cause.”

“He was already out there, _in pajamas_ , getting shot at. I’m putting him in body armor because he’s not going to stop,” Tony stated. “Did you tell him about condoms? Or did you just leave it at ‘abstinence is best’? He needs to be protected.”

“He’s fifteen-”

“Fifteen, eighteen, it’s just a number!”

“The line between child and adult had to be drawn somewhere and eighteen is where this country drew it with respect to military service,” May said coldly. “I expect you to respect that. Peter is fifteen, that means you have three years to make certain that, if he chooses to become an Avenger, that he’s ready. That he won’t make deadly mistakes like the one Wanda Maximoff made in Lagos.”

“We all make mistakes,” Tony said quietly. “No matter how hard we try to safeguard ourselves from them.”

“You will never use, ‘he’s just a kid’ to excuse Peter’s mistakes,” May ordered. “As long as he’s a child, you will not put him in situations he’s not ready for. Because ‘just a kid’ means that the adults around him _put_ him in a situation where _they_ should have known better.”

“Three years, then he makes his choice,” Tony said.

“And until then you will support me in putting a stop to this- this-” May threw up her hands, “The next thing we know, he’ll be trying to drop out of school! And where is he now? It’s eight and he’s not home-”

“Er, I’m home,” Peter admitted stepping into the room. “I didn’t want to interrupt while the two of you fought over my life.”

“Peter,” May sighed, her shoulders slumping. “It’s not like that.”

“Right, I’m just a kid.”

“She has a point,” Tony said. “I mean, I don’t think we can actually stop you but it doesn’t make you any less of a kid… And I gave you the suit so you’d be protected IF you saw something you couldn’t stay out of, not so you could go looking for trouble instead of, you know, being a kid.”

Peter grimaced.

“You were in band?” Tony continued. “What instrument? My mom played piano.” 

“I feel like I could be doing something more important. Just... something more,” Peter stammered. “There were these guys- robbing an ATM with majorly suped up tech and- And they got it from somewhere. I mean these guys weren’t- They were thugs but they had stuff- Cuts through steel like tissue paper. Anti-gravity fields. Totally out of their league but- But they had it. Someone’s gotta be supplying them, it didn’t just appear. What am I doing learning about Niels Bohr when I could be tracking down those guys’ supplier before they mess up and kill someone, or a bunch of someones?”

Tony froze. He glanced toward May for help. Her chin came up, her expression, clearly stating “You brought this on.” 

“I guess, after you disarmed those guys, you could have used your enhanced strength to beat an answer out of them,” Tony said slowly. “Then you could have gone after that guy and done the same to him until you’ve got the whole supply chain or until you screw up and kill one of them before you get the next fish in the chain. If you’re going to spend the rest of your life relying on your powers and what you know right this minute there are things you could do, could accomplish…. But you’d always be resorting to violence, always falling back on your abilities. And you’d be choosing to make your powers the only way you contribute to the world. 

“But Peter, you’re more than just someone with super strength and enhanced reflexes. You could BE the next Niels Bohr.” Tony pointed to the suit case. “That? It’s reactive. You can use it to combat the world’s ills. But if you want to get to the root of the problem? If you want to CHANGE the world, not just fight the ugly parts of it?” He pointed to Peter’s head, “What’s up there is of more use to you than the suit, as long as you develop it…. So, um, why don’t you let me worry about these high tech/low crime guys you found and in the meantime, let’s see about getting you back on your Decathlon Team?” 

“You don’t want me to go out patrolling?” Peter asked.

Tony shook his head. “No, I don’t want you to go looking for trouble.”

Peter glanced towards May, “But I can keep the suit, just in case something happens?”

May’s mouth tightened. “Right now, every instinct I’ve got is insisting that I protect you from anything that might hurt you. I know I can’t cocoon you in bubble wrap to keep you safe from the world, as much as I might want to… I- I’m proud that you want to help but I don’t want to see you get hurt.”

“Please! You can’t-” Peter started.

May held up a hand. “That’s why I changed my mind about making Mr. Stark keep the suit at the Compound,” she sighed. “Just- Keep your promise Peter, don’t go looking for trouble.”

* * *

As Peter was walking to school the next morning, Ned jogged up and fell in beside him. “Tony Stark was in your house!” he exclaimed.

“What were you doing at my house?” Peter demanded.

“You said we were gonna finish the Death Star!” Ned exclaimed. “Your aunt was going to let me wait for you in your room but she opens the door and there’s this case open on your bed and she FREAKS!!”

“I left it on my bed?” Peter realized.

“Your Aunt has Tony Stark’s personal number!!” Ned babbled. “She grabs her phone and the next thing I know your Aunt is _yelling_ at TONY STARK. And forty minutes- FORTY MINUTES!!!! -later Tony Stark is in your house. IN YOUR HOUSE, PETER!!!”

“SI internship, come on Ned you know about that,” Peter said, feeling desperate.

Ned gave him a look, “Dude, I might not know much about jobs but your aunt summoning Tony Stark? That is NOT a normal internship.”

“It’s the only internship I’ve ever had,” Peter insisted.

In History, Ned leaned across the aisle and whispered, “Is your aunt having an affair with Tony Stark?”

“What?!” Peter barely remembered to keep his voice down. “No!”

“You sure?” Ned asked. “Because if she was, they probably wouldn’t tell you.”

“Yes, I’m sure,” Peter hissed. 

In Chemistry, Ned scooted his chair over to Peter’s lab bench, “It’s about that case. Did you steal something from SI?”

“No,” Peter said flatly not glancing up from his experiment. 

“Working from home on something you shouldn’t have brought out of the lab?”

“No.”

“I’m sure that case means something,”

“Just drop it, Ned,” Peter sighed.

In Gym, Ned held Peter’s feet while he did sit-ups. “The case, there were several capsules in there.”

“Ned, shut up,” Peter said.

“And the foam, it had an imprint. I can almost see it.”

In the bleachers Liz and several of her friends were talking while they waited their turn, “Now, see, for me, it would be F Thor… …marry Iron Man and kill Hulk,” one girl declared.

“Well, what about the Spider-Man?” another of Liz’s friends asked.

“It’s just Spider-Man,” Liz corrected.

Ned’s mouth dropped open. “I know!” he mouthed, unable to even give voice to his realization.

Peter shook his head violently.

“Did you see the bank security cam on YouTube?” Liz continued. “He fought off four guys.”

“Oh, my God, she’s crushing on Spider-Man,” one of her friends exclaimed.

“No way!” 

Liz smiled bashfully. “Kind of,” she admitted.

“Oh, gross,” her friend screeched. “He’s probably 30. You don’t know what he looks like. Like, what if he’s seriously burned?”

“I wouldn’t care,” Liz declared. “I’d love him for the person he is inside.”

“Peter knows Spider-Man,” Ned blurted out. 

“No, I don’t,” Peter exclaimed.

The whole class turned to stare.

“No. I-- I mean--” Peter stammered, realizing his denial was only drawing more attention.

Ned’s face lit up like a lightbulb. “You’re his guy in the chair. That is so cool!” 

“What?” Peter asked, turning to stare at Ned.

“You totally are,” Ned insisted while the class listened in. “That mysterious case. The weird stuff you’re always making in chemistry when the teacher isn't looking-” 

“Ned, shut up!” Peter begged as Flash snickered, “Yeah sure, Parker’s friends with Spider-Man… Like he can’t go to Nationals because Tony Stark’s counting on him.”

Ned turned around and gave Flash a smug look, “And that’s why Tony Stark was at Peter’s house last night. I totally saw him… And he signed my Lego Death Star. I’ve got pictures on my phone if you don’t believe me.”

“Of Tony Stark at Parker’s house?” Flash looked shaken. “There’s no way.”

“No, of his signature on the Death Star,” Ned corrected. “Peter’s aunt pretty much shoved me out the door before I could get my phone out to ask for a picture with him.”

Flash’s confidence returned. “Well, that’s awesome,” he said. “Hey, you know what? Maybe you should invite him to Liz’s party. Right Parker?”

“I think Tony Stark’s a little old for Liz’s party,” Ned said.

Flash rolled his eyes, “Not Tony Stark-”

Liz smiled at Peter, “Yeah, I’m having people over tonight. You’re more than welcome to come,” she told him.

 

“Having a party?” Peter stammered.

“Yeah, it’s gonna be dope,” Flash said. “You should totally invite your personal friend Spider-Man.”

Peter started to make an excuse

“It’s okay,” Liz sighed. “I know Peter’s way too busy for parties anyway, so…”

“Come on. He’ll be there. Right, Parker?” Flash challenged just as the bell rang.

“What are you doing?” Peter demanded catching Ned’s arm as their classmates hurried off to change. “And what’s a ‘guy in the chair’?” 

“You know how there’s a guy with a headset,” Ned explained, “telling the other guy where to go? If he’s in a burning building, you tell him where to go. There’d be screens around… Let me help? You’ve got to let me help!” Ned looked euphoric. “You’re Spider-Man’s guy in the chair!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So with May in the know, Ned's going to have a little more trouble figuring out that Peter is Spider-Man.


	4. The Party and Other Crises

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Agent May in a scene where Aunt May is a subject of discussion is just awkward!!
> 
> I’m going to assume that Tony’s reason for being in what looks like India is because he was trying to track Kamar-Taj down.

May drove Peter and Ned out to the suburbs for Liz’s party with no awkward questions about whether or not there would be responsible adults on the premises. 

“There might be alcohol there,” Peter suggested. He ignored the absolutely betrayed look Ned was shooting him.

“I trust you two to handle yourselves,” May replied blithely. 

“What?” Peter exclaimed.

“Peter, if you don’t want to go just say so but don’t try to make me the bad guy here,” May said. “ Besides, it’s spiked punch, it’s not like I’m asking you to deal with a hostage situation or a bank robbery. I trust you to make the responsible choice… And if you don’t? Well, I’m picking you up at one since the bus doesn’t run out here and neither of you drive.”

“Your aunt is so cool,” Ned said as May drove away. Then he asked, “When will Spider-Man show up?”

“He’s not,” Peter said. “Even if I did know him, through Mr. Stark or something, he’s not a party trick. I'm just gonna be myself, not Spider-Man’s friend or tech guy or whatever you think I am.”

“Peter, no one wants that,” Ned said bluntly.

“Dude,” Peter objected.

They headed inside. Liz’s huge house was crawling with kids from their school. Flash had taken charge of the DJ’s booth. Michelle wandered by, “I can’t believe you’re at this lame party,” she greeted them.

“But you’re here too,” Ned pointed out.

“Am I?” Michelle asked as she smeared spread on a cracker and took a bite.

“Peter, I’m glad you came,” Liz welcomed them with a genuine smile before running off at the sound of breaking glass.

“Penis Parker, what's up?” Flash called over the sound system, blowing an air horn to ensure that he had the whole party’s attention. “So where's your pal Spider-Man? Let me guess: In Canada with your imaginary girlfriend?" He paused for a beat, waiting for laughs then added. "That's not Spider-Man. That's just Ned in a red shirt.”

Peter’s expression tightened, “I’ll step out, call him,” he told Ned. “Who knows maybe he’s having a slow night.” 

“Make Flash eat his words,” Ned encouraged. “And introduce me!”

Peter climbed up onto the roof of the neighboring house and started stripping down to his costume. “Hey, what's up? I'm Spider-Man. Just thought I'd swing by and say hello to my buddy Peter,” he practiced. “Oh, you must be Ned, Peter told me all about you. Hey, where's Peter, anyways? He must be around..." He shook his head. “God, this is stupid. What am I doing?”

Then he noticed a weird flash of light and a billow of smoke in the distance. “May, Mr. Stark, I wasn’t patrolling, I wasn’t looking for trouble. I just saw something weird and went to check it out,” he said to himself as he abandoned the party. “If it’s something big, I won’t get involved. I’ll just call it in. This is totally following the guidelines they laid out.”

* * *

Groggily Sam Wilson groped across his bedside table for his urgently buzzing phone. “Whoizthis?” he slurred.

“It’s Spider-Man how do I fight evil-you?” Peter begged in a rush.

“Kid!” Sam exclaimed, adrenaline washing away the remnants of sleep. “Any buildings to web to?” he asked as he jumped out of bed and started pulling on his wings over the boxers and tee-shirt he’d been sleeping in. 

“I’m in the suburbs!” Peter wailed.

“Karen, babysitter protocols,” Sam ordered. An alarm sounded throughout the Compound. 

Almost before the words were out of his mouth, FRIDAY announced. “The suit boss left in Queens is enroute. Cellphone coverage in the Himalayas is too spotty, contacting Rhodes to pilot.” 

A holographic display popped up from Sam’s watch, giving him the HUD display from Peter’s mask showing the teen dangling precariously in the grip of a masked man with massive propeller-driven wings. “Okay,” Sam said as he ran through the Compound. He saw Vision’s feet vanishing through the ceiling as the Android answered the alarm. “Karen, altimeter. Notify at two hundred feet. Kid, kick free when you get the alert. Get upright immediately-”

Peter screamed as Toomes let go. “He’s falling!” Karen exclaimed and triggered Peter’s chute.

“NO! Not yet!” Sam shouted, too late.

* * *

On the other side of the world, Tony’s cellphone lay on the passenger seat of his car as he sped through the twisting mountain roads, pushing his car as fast as it could drive. 

“I’ve lost connection with the suit!” Rhodes’ voice emerged from the discarded phone. “Deploy Mark 46 from the tower.” 

“Boss, I’ve detected a wifi signal from the Inn ahead,” FRIDAY said over Rhodes. “ETA eighty seconds.”

“Hijack it,” Tony ordered. “As soon as you’re in range.” The isolated Inn, just over an hour north of Kathmandu, that Tony had been directed to appeared around a bend in the road. Tony whipped the steering wheel around and skidded through the turn coming to a stop a bare hand-span from the front steps. 

A portly man with a shaved head and red robes stepped off the porch and held out a slip of paper to Tony, “The password,” he said calmly.

“Thanks,” Tony said reading it at a glance. “FRIDAY, good job calling ahead.” He entered the password into his phone and brought up a holographic image of the code controlling Mark 48’s remote features. 

“I didn’t,” FRIDAY said but Tony wasn’t paying any attention.

“Amadeus, I’m fitting you with one of those anti-tech S.H.I.E.L.D. bracelets,” he muttered when he recognized his hacker’s signature. “Permanently.”

* * *

Tangled in his chute Peter hit the surface of a lake hard enough to knock the air out of his lungs. For several seconds he was too stunned to do anything but sink deeper into the water. Then he started struggling against the silken cocoon, trying to get free, to get to the surface. Reflexively he sucked in a mouthful of water. 

An Iron Man suit dove into the lake after him and pulled the teen out. “Mr. Stark?” Peter asked once he finished coughing up lake water. 

“Close but nope,” Harley’s voice said from the armor. “Tony left an armor near your house just in case. Amadeus helped me figure out how to hack it so we’d get the alarm instead, if you were in trouble. Like we need Babysitter Protocols,” Harley scoffed. “We’ve got your back.”

“Baby? ” Peter squawked as he tried to wring the water out of his mask. “That’s what Mr. Stark thinks of me?”

“Us,” Harley said. “I mean, you get to use a suit without supervision… So who was that guy?”

“Don’t know but he’s got to be connected to the guys I caught using alien tech to rip off ATM machines,” Peter replied. “I knew Mr. Stark wasn’t taking me seriously when I told him about them.”

“Uh-oh,” Harley broke in. “Busted.” 

The armor’s posture shifted as Tony took control. It turned its head, doing a quick scan of the area. “Peter, any injuries?” Tony’s voice sounded flat and angry. 

“I’m fine,” Peter insisted. “I had everything under control.”

“We,” Harley interjected.

“Right, both you and Amadeus are on my shit-list too,” Tony growled at Harley. “And Peter, I thought we had an agreement?”

“I wasn’t doing anything wrong!” Peter exclaimed. “I saw something weird, I was just going to take a look then call it in.”

“Yeah call it in, after you got in an aerial battle with a flier!” Tony accused. 

“I didn’t have a choice,” Peter protested. “My phone rang. They were going to shoot that guy. They saw me. They were getting away!” 

“You always have a choice,” Tony snapped. “You’re soaking wet. Karen- Heaters.” A billow of hot air dried Peter’s suit in seconds. “You could have run. You should have run."

“They would have killed-”

“I don’t give a damn. And what the hell do you mean your phone rang? Karen screens your calls when your in your suit and routes them to your HUD if they’re worth your time and if they don’t put you at risk.”

“I didn’t think-”

“Damn right you didn’t think and it almost got you killed,” Tony exclaimed as Falcon, Vision and the Mark 46 piloted by Rhodes arrived. “What if there hadn’t been a lake there? If you’d hit pavement you’d be dead! Obviously you didn’t _think_ about what that would do to your Aunt!”

“Tony!” Rhodes barked as Peter flinched. 

“This little idiot-” Tony pointed at Peter.

“Tones, stand down,” Rhodes said. “We’ll have a full debrief tomorrow.”

“But-” Tony started.

“Review all the data. Get your temper under control,” Rhodes ordered. “You’re not helping right now. We’ll pull in Harley and Amadeus since they also played a role. Deal with all three of them at once. In the mean time. Sam, take Peter home. Talk to Ms. Parker about what’s going on. I want her in on the debrief but only if you think she can handle it, if not we give her a summary afterwards. I’ll give Helen and Mrs. Keener the heads up.”

Harley gulped audibly. 

“Ned,” Peter squeaked as Sam went to fly him up. “I left him at the party. Aunt May’s his ride home.”

Sam groaned.

* * *

A nondescript car pulled up in front of Liz’s house where the party was still going strong. Melinda May pulled an over-sized sweater on over the top of her combat gear then glanced in the mirror and arranged her expression into something warmer and less blank than the one that normally graced her face. She walked up to the door and knocked. “Could you point me to Ned Leeds?” she asked the teen who opened the door.

The kid shrugged, “Hey, anybody seen Ned?” he asked. Another kid pointed vaguely toward the back of the house. 

In the living-room Flash was still in control of the DJ booth. “When I say ‘penis,’ you say ‘Parker’." he egged on the crowd. May’s assumed expression slipped slightly into disgust as dozens of kid quickly joined in with Flash’s harassment. 

“Who are you?” Michelle demanded walking up to May.

“May Parker asked me to pick up Ned,” May said as Liz joined them.

“Is something wrong?” Liz asked. “I haven’t seen Peter for awhile.”

May glanced pointedly toward Flash, “Apparently Peter didn’t feel comfortable here,” she said. “I think- He might have been trying to walk home when...”

Liz’s eyes widened, “Is he okay?” Her voice rose worriedly drawing attention. “Why couldn’t Ms. Parker pick them up? Did something happen to Peter?”

May hesitated, acting as if she was considering whether or not it was alright to say anything more while she let the whispers spread. 

Ned pushed his way through the group beginning to crowd around May and Liz as the chanting died out. 

“Peter should be fine,” May said with no certainty in her voice. “Back at school tomorrow- Probably. The authorities needed a statement of course. The ER visit’s just precautionary- I think.” 

“Peter’s hurt?” Ned’s eyes went wide as saucers. 

The other kids, particularly those who’d been chanting a few seconds earlier were suddenly fascinated by the floor, unable to meet each other’s eyes as their consciences pricked at them. Flash abandoned the DJ booth to creep closer. He looked a little pasty. May couldn’t tell if he actually felt bad or if he was just worrying about how it might reflect back on him if his bullying had driven Peter into a situation where he’d been injured.

“Ned,” May said. “We have to go.” 

Michelle patted Liz’s hand comfortingly and grabbed an empty popcorn bowl just in case the older girl threw up as May hustled Ned out of the party. 

“Can you take me to the hospital?” Ned asked in a small voice as May drove away.

“No.” 

He dug out his cell.

“Who are you calling?” May demanded.

“Peter’s aunt,” Ned said.

“Don’t,” May ordered. “She might not know yet.”

“What!” Ned exclaimed. Then realized, “You’re one of the Avengers. Is it a Spider-Man thing? Please, is Peter okay?”

May eyed him for a moment. “Bumps and bruises. He got lucky- This time,” she answered curtly.

Ned sank into his seat as relief washed over him. “Can I see him?”

“At school, tomorrow,” May reiterated. Then she sighed. “He might be late. He and the other two have a lot of explaining to do.”


	5. Rumors and Warnings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Does Michelle seem like Hermione Granger sans magic to anyone else?

“So,” Michelle announced the morning after the party as she dropped into step beside Ned. “According to the rumor mill a serial killer kidnapped Peter after he left Liz’s party last night, chopped him up into little pieces and left them on his Aunt’s doorstep… Or Peter’s Uncle getting killed last year wasn’t a mugging gone wrong and his parents didn’t die in plane crash when he was three. It was all part of a conspiracy or some sort of a feud or maybe a generational stalker... And the guy came back last night and murdered Peter.”

“Could you sound at least a little horrified when you say stuff like that?” Ned begged. 

Michelle shrugged, “So is Peter going to be here or not?”

“Why are you asking me?”

Michelle gave him a look, “If you didn’t interrogate Ms. Avenger while you had a chance I will thoroughly disappointed in you.”

Ned sighed, “She said Peter might be a little late but he’s not hurt or anything.”

Michelle nodded in satisfaction, turned sharply and disappeared into the crowd of students. 

Peter slunk into second period right before the bell buried under a hoodie with dark shadows beneath his eyes. At his entrance the class erupted into whispers. The teacher cleared his throat pointedly and the class quieted but they didn’t stop staring at Peter like they were seeing a ghost. 

“You look like shit!” Ned whispered leaning across the aisle.

Peter hunched his shoulders and tugged his hood further forward. 

“What happened? Did someone use you as a hostage against Spider-Man? Did the bad guys find you’re his guy in the chair? Was it because of the party? Where there sharks? …Where there rabid sharks? Or maybe rabid alligators?” Ned whispered rapid fire as soon as the teacher seemed absorbed in his lecture.

“Pretty sure only mammals can get rabies,” Peter grumbled back.

Ned hummed thoughtfully.

As they walked to their next class he asked, “Tied up and hung over a pit of lava? Did you hear an actual bad guy monologue?”

Peter was spared answering by Flash of all people walking up and declaring, “Parker! Thank god you’re not dead. I mean of course you’re not dead and even if you were it’d be your fault if you couldn’t handle a little friendly teasing. It wouldn’t be my fault.” 

As Flash walked off Peter and Ned looked at each other and just shook their heads.

During lab Ned asked, “Was Spider-Man mad at you for letting it get out that you know him?”

“You’re the one who told the whole class that I know Spider-Man,” Peter hissed back.

“Yeah, but you let me find out,” Ned replied. “Was Mr. Stark mad? Actually he was pretty cool the other day when I met him at your house. He totally dug the Lego Death Star.”

“Are you grounded?” Ned asked as they pressed through the crowd of students hurrying to the cafeteria for lunch.

Peter groaned, “They’re joining forces against me.” 

“Who?” Ned begged. 

Liz spotted the two of them as they made it into the cafeteria. She leapt up from her table, ran over and threw her arms around Peter’s neck in front of nearly a quarter of the school. “I’m so glad you’re okay Peter!” she exclaimed. 

“I -um- Liz?!” Peter squeaked.

Liz released him and took a step back. “And I’m sorry. It was my party, my home. I should have told Flash that HE could leave if he was going to make MY other guests feel unwelcome,” she said firmly and clearly. “I was really glad when you came and I’m glad you’re back on the Decathlon team. Mr. Harrington said a representative from Stark Industries contacted him the other day and explained that there was some miscommunication about the patent you were filing… What it’s for?”

“Um- it’s an adhesive,” Peter said. “Really it was a lab accident but Dr. Ross thought it was worth patenting.” He scratched the back of his head nervously. 

The patent was real but it wasn’t really the reason he’d dropped so many of his activities but it wasn’t like he could say, _‘I think Spider-Man is a better use of my time than band or the Decathlon, my aunt and Tony Stark don’t agree.’_

“There’s a lot of stuff that SI’s lawyers take care of that I didn’t get. I was trying to do all this stuff myself and… basically freaking out,” Peter said, sticking with the story that Tony had come up with before party and everything else that had happened that night.

“A patent IS a big deal, especially when you’re not even out of High School yet,” Liz said. “We all understand. Anyway: I’m glad you’re okay. I’m glad you’re back on the team. I’m sorry I didn’t put a stop to it when some people at my party were bullying you.”

As Liz walked back to her table, Ned leaned close to Peter and whispered, “Score! Liz Allen hugged you. Confirmed that your internship is real. And publically trashed Flash Thompson.”

“She really did hug me?” Peter whispered back. “I didn’t just imagine that part?”

Ned shook his head.

“Okay, officially, I can’t wish that this week never happened anymore,” Peter said. 

He and Ned made it through the lunch line and headed for their normal table. 

“So who’s joining forces against you?” Ned asked again.

“May and Mr. Stark,” Peter huffed. “Normally she doesn’t like him-”

“What? Why?” Ned exclaimed.

Peter shrugged.

Michelle glanced up from her lunch. “Hypothetically, if you were somehow involved with superheroing, your aunt would probably be afraid that you’d get hurt but also afraid that if she tried to forbid you from being involved you’d go all rebellious teenager and do it anyway,” she said. “So for her it would be safer to be mad at Tony Stark for representing the whole superhero world than to be mad at you and potentially alienate you. Because alienating you wouldn’t stop you from putting yourself at risk it would only make it harder for her to know how she might be able to help keep you safe.”

The two boys stared at her.

“Hypothetically,” Michelle said with a shrug. “Also there was that time Peter nearly got killed at the Stark Expo when he was eight.”

“That was so awesome!” Ned exclaimed. “Iron Man talked to you!”

Peter shook his head. “Michelle’s right, scary but right. Awesome isn’t how May and Ben felt about that whole thing,” he sighed. “I mean they knew it wasn’t really Mr. Stark’s fault. That’s why they wouldn’t have anything to do with the group lawsuit against him for not having better security at his Expo. But they still sort of blamed him because I ended up nearly collateral damage because of some jerk going after him.”

“That sucks,” Ned said.

Peter nodded. “So May just doesn’t like him, for a lot of reasons. And Mr. Stark acts kind of like he’d rather May didn’t know about what I do on my internship at all, which doesn’t improve her opinion of him. I thought he was on my side. Only the first time something goes wrong, he starts siding with her against me.”

“Adults,” Ned sympathized. He made an obvious show of lowering his voice and turning his back to Michelle to exclude her from the conversation. “So, um, really what happened last night?” he whispered. “You ditched me at a party, you gotta at least tell me why… Or something. Come on, let me live my dream vicariously.” 

Peter’s resistance crumpled. “I’m in so much trouble,” he admitted. “When they told me to go to school, May and Mr. Stark were talking about a three strikes thing before they take the suit away. They won’t LISTEN when I tell them I wasn’t looking for trouble- I saw something, I went to check it out. Wasn’t that the whole reason Mr. Stark let me take it home in the first place? And Mr. Stark wasn’t there, he doesn’t get it, I just couldn’t run.” 

Ned choked on his milk. 

Peter gave him a thump on the back and a worried look, “Wrong tube?”

Ned nodded, staring at Peter, slack jawed, milk dripping down his chin. 

“So anyway, I guess it’s not like they’re singling me out or anything. I mean, Harley and Amadeus got it even worse- They hacked Mr. Stark’s armor. -Harley’s been grounded from practice with his armor for two months and Amadeus isn’t supposed to go near SI servers for the same. Which means his whole internship is on hold for two months… And J.A.R.V.I.S. is in charge of monitoring that he doesn’t try to get around it. That’s like the online version of having the Vice Principal standing over your shoulder twenty-four/seven-”

“You’re not Spider-Man’s guy in the chair,” Ned gasped. “You are Spider-Man!”

“No I’m not!” Peter whispered, eyes darting around to check if anyone else had heard.

“You are!” Ned insisted. 

“I’m not!” 

“How do you do that stuff? Is it the suit? Do you have powers?”

“I’m not Spider-Man,” Peter insisted.

“Can you spit venom? Can you summon an army of spiders?”

“Ned, shut up!” Peter hissed.

“Do you lay eggs?” Ned asked three hours later as he followed Peter through the rapidly emptying halls. 

“What? Why would Spider-Man lay eggs?” Peter exclaimed. “That’s gross.”

“Well, spiders lay eggs don’t they?” Ned said.

“I don’t lay eggs!” Peter snapped.

“But you are Spider-Man! You admit it!” Ned replied triumphantly.

“Ned, just go home,” Peter groaned.

“Why? Are you going to do some secret Spider-Man thing?”

“I’m going to band practice,” Peter said. “And you aren’t in band.”

“Yeah, I can’t carry a tune in a bucket,” Ned admitted. “I could just, ya know, hang out.”

“And ask even more questions about- Crap,” Peter cut himself off as he saw two guys walking up the hall. He ducked around a corner. “Come on, come on, come on,” he called to Ned. 

“High schools creep me out,” Mason said. “They got this funny smell, you know?”

Ned glanced at the pair then at Peter in confusion. Peter gestured urgently and Ned slunk around the corner. “That's one of the guys that tried to kill me,” Peter explained urgently.

“What?” Ned hissed.

“Yeah.”

“We gotta get out of here.” 

“No, no, no,” Peter protested. “I gotta follow them. They can lead me to the guy that dropped me in the lake.”

“Isn’t that how you got in trouble?” Ned asked.

Peter looked worried. “I gotta do something. Stay here, Ned.” Peter snuck after the pair, hiding by clinging to the underside of one of the benches while they searched the school’s shop class.

“Man, can you imagine what the boss would say if he knew where we were?” Mason wondered.

“It's saying there was an energy pulse here,” Schultz replied staring at the device he was holding.

“There's no sign of the weapon,” Mason said. 

_‘Weapon?’_ Peter mouthed as he shot a tracking bug on to one of the men’s shoe.

“And even if it was here, now it's gone,” Mason continued. The pair walked right past Peter’s hiding spot, unaware.

“So are we,” Schultz replied..

Later, when Ned and Peter we’re camped out in Peter’s room Ned watched, mouth gaping open, as Peter opened the second layer of the silver case that had initiated such a fuss a few nights earlier and revealed a computer console. “Karen, display tracker,” Peter said.

“Peter, are you aware that there is a civilian present?” a feminine voice asked. 

Ned jumped, “Who is that?!?”

“That’s Karen,” Peter said. “She’s my suit AI. And Karen, it’s fine. Ned knows, he’s a friend.”

“He looks like a security risk,” Karen declared.

Ned gave the case a kicked puppy face.

“Should I alert Colonel Rhodes to the situation?” Karen asked.

“No!” Peter exclaimed.

“Standard protocol dictates-“ Karen began.

“No!” Peter insisted. “No, they’ll just say I did something wrong. That I should have done things differently. ‘Strike two Peter, next time we take the suit!’ Just- Just let me handle it Karen, I know what I’m doing.”

“If you say so,” Karen replied sounding dubious. 

“So -um- What do we do now?” Ned asked.

“We wait for them to stop, then I go find out what sort of evil plots they’re getting up to,” Peter said with a shrug. 

“They're in Brooklyn,” Karen reported. Then, later, “Staten Island.”

“What if they go out of range?” Ned wondered.

Peter shrugged, “Tony Stark and Shuri worked together on the tracker, if they’re out of range they’re not in this solar system… Or maybe this plane of reality.”

“Okay,” Ned said. “Who’s Shuri?”

“Princess of Wakanda.”

“For real? You know a Princess?” Ned’s eyes went wide.

“You’d love her,” Peter said. “Her older brother is that Black Panther who hurt a bunch of people acting like an idiot in Bucharest along with Captain America. Shuri’s way cooler, like Penny to T’Challa’s Inspector Gadget.”

“Can I meet her?” Ned asked.

“Maybe someday,” Peter said.

“Leaving Jersey,” Karen reported.

Time passed. Ned went back to asking random Spider-Man questions while trying on Peter’s mask, “How far can you shoot your webs?”

“It's unknown,” Peter replied.

“Theoretically, in still air, the furthest you can shoot a web is two-hundred and twenty horizontal feet,” Karen interjected.

“Really?” Peter asked. 

“What else can you tell me about the suit Ms. Karen?” Ned asked eagerly.

“Well, we seem to have a little time, I could show you..” Karen suggested.

Peter turned to watch the holographic map showing the current location of the bug and resolved to thank Karen for distracting Ned from his unending stream of questions later.

“I believe this would be an appropriately amusing video to share,” Karen said. 

Peter’s enhanced hearing picked up his own outraged voice coming from the ear piece in the mask Ned wore, _“Training wheels protocol? Why do you always treat me like a kid.”_

“No!” Peter said. “Karen, don’t show him that.”

“Oh, I definitely want to see it now,” Ned said. He held onto the mask in case Peter tried to snatch it away. 

“Why not?” Karen asked innocently as she used the HUD to play the scene for Ned as if he were seeing it through Peter’s eyes.

_“Oh let me be the training dummy for this!” Hawkeye volunteered eagerly._

_“What do you say kid,” Tony Stark asked. “You, with your enhancements and EVERYTHING I put in that suit verses the retired guy with a bow and arrow? ...Well, everything short of Instant Kill Mode.”_

_In the background Harley, Amadeus and Shuri could be heard snickering._

“Dude, you’re totally being set up,” Ned observed.

Peter heaved a deep sigh. “I don’t know why my spider-sense wasn’t going crazy back then… I guess danger of fatal embarrassment doesn’t register with it.”

“Ooh!” Ned winced in sympathy as he got a first hand view of Peter face-planting with no outside assistance. 

_“What was that?” Spider-Man demanded._ Through the eye cameras Ned watched Peter push himself off the floor and glance up at where Hawkeye was standing nonchalantly, not having even moved in response to Spider-Man’s failed attempt at springing into action.

_“You jumped off the end of the viewing balcony and landed on your face,” Karen reported blandly._

_“What's wrong with my web-shooters?” Spider-Man demanded glancing up at the balcony where Tony Stark was watching along with Colonel Rhodes, Melinda May, Harley, Amadeus and Shuri._

_“I haven’t had a chance to work with you,” Tony said with a careless shrug. “So I took my best guess and set rapid-fire as the default for Enhanced Combat Mode.”_

_“I love this part of product demo,” Shuri whispered loudly. “Where the victim- I mean future user- doesn’t have a clue.”_

_“Why would I need rapid-fire?” Spider-Man asked, a pout clear in his voice._

_“Say you snare one of Hawkeye’s arrows out of the air,” Tony said. “Hey Katniss, what’s your rate of fire?”_

_“Three arrows a minute… Assuming I’m firing them one at a time,” Hawkeye replied._

_Tony gestured grandly to the other Avengers, “And that’s why you’d need rapid fire.”_

_“But I don’t use my webs to grab projectiles,” Spider-Man argued. “They’re mostly for transportation and tying the bad guys up.”_

_“You’ve got plenty of other options,” Tony said. “Five hundred and seventy-six to be specific.”_

_“Five hundred and!?!” Peter exclaimed._

_“Should I let him talk or just put him on the ground?” Hawkeye interrupted._

_Spider-Man pointed to the archer, “See, this is why I don’t need nearly six hundred choices! By the time I make up my mind I’m toast.”_

_“And hence, the training wheels protocol,” Tony replied. “You try things out, figure out what works for you, what doesn’t… Here, where you’re safe. Things that work with your style go on the shortlist, things you hate get deleted.” Then he grinned, “So get to it, five hundred and seventy-six options, make use of them.”_

Ned laughed and laughed as he watched Peter try different settings while Hawkeye’s most taxing role was not letting the novice hero land on top of him while Spider-Man battled his own gear. “Oh man, these are like your embarrassing superhero baby pictures!” he exclaimed. “Karen, I love you for showing me these.”

“I can show you more,” Karen offered.

“What did I ever do to you?” Peter demanded. 

“Not let me contact Colonel Rhodes,” Karen replied immediately. “I am programmed to obey you but protocol states that Colonel Rhodes SHOULD be notified. I believe I am experiencing the equivalent of a headache due to the conflict.” 

Peter’s eyes filled with guilt, “I’m- I’m sorry Karen.”

“They stopped,” Karen interrupted crisply. “In Maryland.” 

“What's there?” Ned wondered.

“A gas station, according to both maps and satellite images,” Karen said.

“Maybe it’s a cover for their evil lair?” Peter speculated.

“They have a lair?” Ned’s eyes popped.

“A gang with alien guns,” Peter said, “Run by a guy with wings? Yeah.”

“Badass,” Ned declared. “But how are you gonna get there if it's, like, 300 miles away?”

Peter glanced at the flyer for the Academic Decathlon, “It's not too far from D.C.”

“Lucky your aunt and Mr. Stark didn’t let you quit the team,” Ned said.

“Practically fate,” Peter agreed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Peter actually knows about the "Training Wheels Protocol" he doesn't just find out upon hacking the suit. Having someone likes Rhodey, who has actual experience in doing training, means that someone told Tony it was a good idea to clue Peter in rather than expecting him to just realize he was being trained. Peter still takes offense at the name and he gets embarrassed in a safe environment instead of against the bad guys. 
> 
> To keep the DC stuff in some form, I'm going to assume that park was on someone's way home from Liz's party and the device still got picked up by a Midtown High student.


	6. Equivalencies

Peter excused himself from Liz’s impromptu practice session on the bus ride down to DC to answer his phone. “Hey,” he said biting back, ‘Mr. Stark,” not wanting to give Flash an excuse to accuse him of lying about knowing Tony Stark again.

“Good luck with the Decathlon, Spiderling,” Tony said.

“Er- Thanks?” Peter’s tone conveyed that he was sure Tony had to have more reasons than wishing him good luck to call.

Tony sighed, “May told me you took the suit.”

“You said I should have it, in case,” Peter whined.

“Yeah, just…” Tony hesitated. “S.U.D.D.S. found you out because I’ve got J.A.R.V.I.S. to crunch numbers for me. Without him we’re talking crazed stalker willing to dedicate months of their lives to figuring out your secret identity, well, beyond pegging you as one of Queen’s two point three five nine million inhabitants, that takes twenty minutes of checking out Youtube videos to figure out. But if Spider-Man, the Queens native, suddenly shows up in D.C. along with a bus load of kids from Midtown High? Now, it’s not much of a stretch for someone to guess that he’s one of less than a dozen individuals.”

“I’ll be careful,” Peter insisted.

“Do that,” Tony replied. “And I don’t mean say you’ll be careful the way I tell Pepper I’m going to be careful, BE CAREFUL.”

“I will,” Peter promised instantly feeling guilty.

Later that night, after Peter had snuck out of his hotel room and snagged a ride on a passing semi he got a second call. “Spidey, mind explaining why your tracker says you’re breaking curfew?” Colonel Rhodes asked in a deceptively mild tone.

“A rebellious group activity the day before competition is good for morale,” Peter said, thinking quickly. “Or at least that’s what our team captain says.”

Rhodes groaned, “You’re sneaking out to go drinking with your Academic Decathlon team? Sometimes you kids remind me too much of Tony.”

“Something like that,” Peter said.

“If you don’t end up needing bailed out tonight, I’ll tell you what Tony talked me into Springbreak of ‘88,” Rhodes offered. .

After he hung up Peter asked, “Why do I feel so guilty? I’m doing the right thing.”

“Have you considered that this isn’t the right thing?” Karen replied. “Why won’t you follow the protocols the Avengers set up for your safety?”

“They think I’m a kid,” Peter said. “They’ll pat me on the head and tell me to go home, that they’ll take care of it. I can do more, I have to do more.”

“Why?” Karen asked.

“Because when I didn’t my Uncle Ben died,” Peter said.

“That wasn’t your fault,” Karen hadn’t been active long enough to have much of a grasp on emotions so she just repeated what she’d heard multiple people tell Peter before. “You couldn’t have known what was going to happen.”

Peter shook his head. “It doesn’t matter if I knew or not.” He took a deep breath, “I’m going to be careful, like I told Mr. Stark. I’ll follow them, find out where they’re based, what they’re up to then I’ll tell Colonel Rhodes, okay? They’ll never know I was even there.”

After switching cars a few more times Peter arrived at the gas station where the tracker had been spending most of the the last twenty-four hours. “Let’s see what they have to say for themselves,” Peter whispered.

“Activating Enhanced Reconnaissance Mode,” Karen replied.

A moment later Peter was listening in on and recording the two henchmen’s conversation. “I got the gauntlet from the Lagos cleanup,” Mason explained. “The rest is my design.”

 “Whoa, that's so cool,” Schultz replied as he looked over his new weapon. “Can't believe they're still cleaning up that Triskelion mess.”

“I love it,” Mason said. “They keep making messes we keep getting rich.”

 “Target inbound,” Schultz warned, turning serious.

“Oh, oh!” Peter exclaimed. “Karen contact Colonel Rhodes! It’s not a lair, they’re staking out a heist!! Tell him I saw a heist in progress!!”

“Colonel Rhodes is inbound,” Karen said a moment later. “He says don’t engage unless lives are in immediate jeopardy and try not to be seen in the suit.”

As Peter watched Toomes swooped down to hover over a truck with the Damage Control logo on the side. “It’s the flying guy again, the one that dumped me in the lake,” he whispered to Karen.

“You haven’t had a chance to train in BASE jumping yet,” Karen replied. “We should stay away, like the Colonel said.”

Peter flicked out a web and caught a ride low on the truck. “I’m not engaging,” he whispered. “Just sticking close. What if he’s going to kill the driver or something?”

“War Machine is eight minutes out,” Karen replied.

“So I’ll just-” Peter peered around the side of the truck and saw Toomes drop through the roof, leaving his wings hovering above the truck. “Whoa! Did you just see that?” Peter exclaimed. He scrambled up the side to see what had happened.

Four devices on the roof of the truck marked out the corners of a strange shifting field. “Cool. It's like some kind of matter phase shifter,” Peter marveled. He reached out for one of the devices. “I wonder what would happen if I just…” He pulled it off the truck and tossed it away and the phased section of the roof became solid again.

“Hey!” Toomes shouted when he glanced up and saw his escape hatch disappear. He tilted his head toward his comm, “What’s going on out there?” he demanded.

“It’s the guy in red tights again,” Schultz reported as he peered through binoculars at the truck.

“Gimme the coordinates,” Toomes ordered.

Outside Spider-Man crawled back down the side of the truck. “Karen, tell Colonel Rhodes I’ve got the big bad trapped and he didn’t even see me.”

“Three minutes-” Karen started to say.

The wings that had been hovering over the truck banked and dropped back several yards. Peter felt the hair on the back of his neck standing on end. He threw himself off the truck a moment before a blast practically tore the truck in half.

Peter rolled across the asphalt _‘Please don’t run me over!_ ’ flashed through his mind as cars swerved wildly, trying to avoid the debris spilling across the road along with the young hero. Surrounded by sparks as the truck bed, its rear axle sheared off, dragged over the road, Toomes leapt through the gap, rejoined his wings in a practiced movement and flew off into the night.

Painfully, Peter rolled back to his feet and started webbing the larger chunks of truck, flipping them out of the path of traffic. Then he ran over to the the shoulder of the road where the truck had ended up to check on the driver and guard. He heard the roar of repulsors as Rhodes swooped down just in time to catch a car with a blown tire before it could jump the median. He lifted it into the air and set it down on the shoulder beside the cab of the truck.

“Does anyone need a hospital?” Rhodes asked as he hovered above the road, gesturing for the cars to stop.

Peter glanced in the direction where the Vulture had disappeared. “The driver’s got a bad cut on his forehead,” he said. “Probably needs stitches.”

“Then get out of sight,” Rhodes ordered. “Cameras haven’t arrived yet and there was a reason you were told not to pull this bullshit here. Don’t go far, you and I are going to be having a talk.”

Peter ended up watching from the bottom of an overpass while Rhodes helped the police clear the road. He watched while EMT’s loaded the truck driver and several others into ambulances… And even though there weren’t any serious injuries seeing that made Peter feel four inches tall. He hung there in the shadows while Rhodes made a preliminary report to the police on site and promised a more formal follow-up with their superiors in the morning. While contact information was collected from those impacted by the battle for insurance purposes. While Rhodes called Maria Hill to start prepping a press release and letting her know that Damage Control’s books needed her attention since it was clear that Toomes’ crew had been around for awhile, that they needed to know yesterday how a group like that had managed to stay below the radar.

Once the ambulances, tow-trucks and police cars had departed, once the night traffic returned to it’s normal flow Rhodes flew over and picked Peter up. Rhodes didn’t say anything to Peter as he flew back toward the hotel, but with his enhanced hearing Peter could hear Rhodes talking with Tony over War Machine’s comm.

“The driver deserves a damned metal,” Peter heard Tony say. “If he hadn’t managed to keep some control when he lost his rear axle there’d be bodies on the pavement.”

“Give the kid credit where it’s due,” Rhodes said. “He doesn’t know when to follow orders but he has good instincts when the shit hits the fan. His pulling the back end of that truck off the freeway before anyone could hit it is a part of why we’re only dealing with fender benders.”

“If he’d done what he was told we’d know about these clowns with no one life risked,” Tony growled.

“How’d you get the full story so fast?” Rhodes asked.

“J had a talk with Karen, she gave up everything.”

“Sorry,” Karen whispered in Peter’s ear. “J.A.R.V.I.S. provided supplementary information on the subject of minors and how your protocols were designed to keep you safe. It’s much clearer now that keeping you safe is my primary purpose. I feel it is only fair to warn you that I have every intention of reporting it if you so much as jay-walk in the near future.”

“I’m going to have to talk fast to keep Ross and his cronies from spinning this into Lagos part two,” Tony was saying. “A too young Enhanced trying to help but failing to call the proper authorities to disastrous effect. Honestly the only leg we’ve got to stand on is that no one was seriously hurt but we’re not talking S.H.I.E.L.D. here, this is the actual government, the sort of people who developed OSHA: A near miss is an incident with a little luck thrown in. It will happen again and there are no guarantees that your luck holds.”

“You think they’ll demand Peter’s ID?” Rhodes asked.

“I’m not giving it up.” Tony sighed, “I’ll pay the damages. And when I have to explain this shit-fest, I’ll remind them that everyone agreed that the last thing we want is to create barriers to underaged Enhanced seeking training to control their powers. Without any serious injuries I think that’ll settle it.”

“Everyone with more than two brain cells to rub together should agree that we don’t want barriers keeping _anyone_ from learning to control their powers,” Rhodes said.

“Making it about protecting kids first shut up the idiots that would have screamed about special rights for Enhanced otherwise,” Tony replied. “Keeping the identities of children out of the public arena is already fairly common. It was easier to argue that kids might be coming into their powers when they’re too young to really know was they want than to argue that anyone who suddenly finds themself biologically enhanced is going to need some time to sort themselves out.”

“We’re already moving toward a UN regulatory body for those of us who decide to take on saving the world as a regular occupation,” Rhodes said. “And Enhancement doesn’t actually play into whether or not you fall under their jurisdiction. It’s about what you do, not how you do it. A professional registration. What’s the hang up with people training their powers?”

“That’s the difficulty with biologically Enhanced,” Tony said. “The thought that you’ve got people out there coming into these powers without automatically gaining the ability to control them is freak-out material. But talking about kids needing schooling and a chance to mature a little before setting themselves on a life path, that’s… less scary. So kids can seek training in their Enhancements under an assumed name and they don’t have to sign anything until they’re old enough to sign a legally binding document so long as they’ve got an adult willing to be held legally responsible for them… And we’ll all have to pretend to be surprised the first time a forty year old trainee unmasks and decides to go pro.”

Peter wilted. While May Parker was Peter Parker’s legal guardian, Tony Stark was Spider-Man’s. Anything Spider-Man did, up to a point- The point where criminal charges were involved. -Tony was responsible for. Beyond that point the government could demand an Enhanced minor’s identity be revealed. _‘I forgot that it’s Mr. Stark who gets in trouble if I screw up,’_ Peter thought miserably.

“You’re good to be in DC in the morning for the debrief?” Rhodes checked.

“Yeah, just send me location.” Tony sighed, “You know this isn’t going to be the end of it. The world never lets me get away with one meeting when it could force me to a half dozen.”

“It’s karma, Tones,” Rhodes chuckled. “For all those meetings of Pepper’s that you skipped out on.”

“Mean,” Tony replied. “You sure I shouldn’t fly out now and read the kid the riot act?”

“You and May had your turn,” Rhodes said.

Peter gulped as the Colonel signed off and set them down on the roof of the hotel. Rhodes took a moment to step out of his armor then waited expectantly until Peter peeled off his mask.

“I’m sorry, I screwed up,” Peter blurted out when he couldn’t stand the silence any more. “Is this strike two or are you just taking the suit away right now?”

“Last time we spent a good hour trying to explain why you were wrong to rush in and try to take these guys on yourself,” Rhodes said. “Doesn’t seem to have made much of an impact. You’re a smart kid and as much as I want to say you weren’t thinking and leave it at that I know it’s not true. There’s something driving you to ignore what we ask you to do. So tell me: Why didn’t you tell us that you had a bug on them? Why did you go after them yourself instead of hanging out with your team?”

“I just couldn’t tell you about the bug. I was already in so much trouble,” Peter protested. “If I’d told you that would have been strike two. The way you guys were being, somehow it would have ended up being my fault that they showed up at my school.”

“We should have known immediately that they were at your school Peter,” Rhodes frowned. “What if your identity was compromised? You and your aunt could have been in danger.”

“See!” Peter exclaimed. “You just jump to thinking I did something wrong! They weren’t looking for me at all. They were talking about tracking energy form some sort of weapon-”

“Wait!” Rhodes interrupted. “J.A.R.V.I.S., tell the S.U.D.D.S. team that there could be some sort of super-weapon at Peter’s school or in the possession of one of his classmates. It’s got a trackable energy signature. They’re stealing from Damage Control to get their gear. Damage Control should have a catalogue of radiation coming off the stuff they have stored, that’s a starting point.”

Rhodes turned back to Peter, “Any other possible explosions that you heard about while not in the suit?”

Peter shook his head.

“So you learned about an alien weapon in your school, planted a tracker on one of our black market weaponeers and sat on the information for twenty-four hours so you could take advantage of your Decathlon to follow them yourself. You ignored Tony and your aunt’s warnings and injunctions. You lied to me about what you were up to. When you realize that you’d misjudged the urgency of the situation you called me then proceeded NOT to do what I asked you to.”

“He was going to get away with that shipment!” Peter protested.

“I judged it better that he get away than to have you engage him on your own on a DC freeway,” Rhodes said. “There might come a time when you do need to override my orders but right now? Peter, you’re fifteen, you’ve been doing this shit for less than a year, you don’t have the experience to know when when NOT to follow orders yet.”

“Why do you guys always do that?” Peter demanded. “Bring up my age like it invalidates everything I do?”

“You’re exactly like Tony at your age,” Rhodes interrupted. “Think that being smart means you’re not still a kid. And the next thing I know he’s in bed with Sunset Bains. The only difference is the people YOU want to play with won’t be metaphorical when it comes to ripping your heart out.”

Peter kept talking over Rhodes, “I was given these powers for a reason! When you can do the things that I can, but you don't and then the bad things happen? They happen because of you!”

Rhodes stopped cold. “Peter,” he said in a quiet, forceful voice, “Tell me what happened to your uncle.”

“I told you! I’ve told EVERYONE!” Peter exclaimed. “I was given these powers. And I was stupid and selfish with them. I could have stopped that guy but I didn’t. And Ben died because of it, because of me.”

“What will happen if YOU don’t keep trying to stop this Vulture guy?” Rhodes asked. “What might have happened if you’d let us deal with this and hung out with your friends tonight instead?”

“There’d be more of those weapons out there and- and- If I don’t do everything I can-” Peter’s voice shook, “What if it’s May or Ned next time?”

“Hell,” Rhodes whispered. “You’re not like Tony at fifteen, you’re Tony right after Afghanistan; eaten alive by guilt, ready to shoulder every sin in the world. You don’t think it’s some sick coincidence that the convenience store stick-up guy you didn’t try apprehend went on to kill your uncle… You think you didn’t use your powers and it’s a punishment, some sort of fucked up karma that sent your uncle into his path.”

“I should have stopped him!” Peter cried. “I have this power. I should have!”

“Tony had the power to stop Stane cold, before a single SI weapon ended up on the black market,” Rhodes said. “But he’d known Stane since he was a kid, saw him as that uncle; the one you can turn to when you’re dad’s being a dick. Tony trusted Stane- Sure he always knew the bastard was more interested in making a dollar than in making the world a better place but Tony trusted him to follow the goddamn letter of the law, if not the intent… And Tony trusted Stane to be in his corner even after Howard did his damnedest to ingrain in Tony that he couldn’t trust anyone at all… Was Afghanistan the universe punishing Tony for being fooled by Stane? And if it was, do you think that’s right?”

Peter shook his head.

“Yeah,” Rhodes said. “Tony put his trust in a snake-oil salesman… And you, you acted like the fourteen year old bystander that you were. I don’t give a damn about your powers. You were a kid, a kid with zero training, facing a guy with a gun… You know what the military taught me the first time I got stationed overseas?” Rhodes asked.

“What?” Peter blinked at the non sequitur.

“How to get mugged. Want to know what my CO advised? It wasn’t the best way to take this hypothetical mugger down. Here I am, a new Lieutenant in the US military and I’m being told how to negotiate, how to try to talk ‘em around to taking the cash and leaving me with my ID.”

Peter stared at Rhodes uncomprehendingly.

“You didn’t do anything wrong Peter,” Rhodes said. “It’s not on you that your uncle died. It’s awful that it happened and a horrible, horrible coincidence that you ran into the guy a few hours earlier but- But Peter? It is not your fault that he died.”

“You are responsible for what you do Peter,” Rhodes said. “You are not responsible for every wack-job who decides that the way to get what they think they deserve out of life is to pick up a weapon and take it. It’s incredible that you want to use whatever power you have to make the world better and we’re glad to have you as one of us that’s signed go out and stop the bad guys but it is NOT your fault that they exist.”

Peter bit his lip, “But tonight was my fault. Because I decided I knew best, because I ignored what you were all telling me. When I confronted him and it blew up in my face, it was my fault.”

“Yeah,” Rhodes said seriously. “I know it’s hard being told you’re too young, that you don’t know what you’re doing. And it’s true that fresh eyes can see problems more clearly than those of us who’ve gotten jaded. But we care about you Peter… It’s not just us being terrified that you’re going to get in over your head and get killed. It’s also that we’re afraid of putting you in the position of making the sort of mistake that haunts the rest of your life. No one died tonight but they could have, I don’t want something like that on your conscious. Take some time to learn from our mistakes before you rush out to make your own. Exeriperence may be a good teacher but it hurts like a bitch and we’d like to spare you that if we can.”

Peter looked up a Rhodes tentatively. “When I don’t come to you, it’s like I don’t trust you?” he asked timidly.

Rhodes nodded, “Someday we’re going to turn the reins over to you and your friends but don’t go thinking that we belong in the old folks home just yet. We’re just starting the transition period, kid.”

“I’m sorry,” Peter repeated.

“Go downstairs, try to get a little sleep before you competition so you don’t act like a zombie,” Rhodes advised.

“The competition?” Peter sounded shocked. “Shouldn’t I go with Mr. Stark to get yelled at? I mean as Spider-Man.”

“Spider-Man from Queens in DC and Peter Parker, also from Queens, missing from where he’s supposed to be in DC at the same time? That’s a situation we’re trying to avoid,” Rhodes said.

“It- it doesn’t seem right,” Peter hesitated.

“It’s what Tony signed on for when he agreed to be legally liable for Spider-Man,” Rhodes said.


	7. Identity Issues

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So my almost-six-year-old walks up and gives me a big wet kiss… Then he informs me that kissing is a secret way of getting slobber on people.

Peter spent the whole competition unable to tear his thoughts away from Tony getting grilled for Spider-Man’s actions somewhere else in the city. He answered a grand sum of one question. “You would have been better off with me on the team,” Flash declared snootily. After Midtown’s victory was declared.

“Peter, is something wrong?” Mr. Harrington asked. “That wasn’t your usual performance.”

“I don’t know,” Peter said miserably. “I guess I’m still distracted worrying about my internship. Maybe I shouldn’t have rejoined the team.”

“Your fake internship you mean,” Flash snorted.

Michelle passed a bell to Abe Brown, “Wanna abuse the bell again?” she offered before turning back to Flash, “You should learn to check your facts: Patent applications are publicly available and Peter’s name is on one filed by Stark Industries.”

“Well, he doesn’t personally know Tony Stark,” Flash sputtered. 

“Everyone has an off day,” Liz said. “But this _team_ isn’t one person. Don’t forget that we won, because _everyone_ did a great job. And I for one want to celebrate with that tour of DC monuments that we were promised.”

“Right,” Mr. Harrison said, happy to be handed a change of subject. “Everyone on the bus, it’s not every day you get to visit the nation’s capital.” 

Peter got off the bus at the Washington Monument still lost in a distracted haze. He vaguely heard Michelle saying something to excuse herself from the tour. He let the the crowd carry him through the security gate. Then it hit, the hair raising tingle racing up his nerves warning him of danger. Peter’s head jerked up and he scanned the area but nothing jumped out at him. 

Needing the reassurance Peter tugged at the neck of his shirt, checking that he had the suit on under his clothes. 

“Peter!” Karen hissed from his wristwatch. 

“Right,” Peter sighed. He got on the elevator with the rest of his classmates still searching for the source of the danger that he sensed.

They were just a couple dozen feet short of the observation deck when Peter spotted something glowing in Flash’s backpack. “What is that?” he demanded interrupting the tour guide. Without waiting for a response he yanked the bag open and pulled out a glowing alien thing wired into some sort of device, Peter recognized an inductive charging plate from an electric toothbrush charging station. 

“Parker! Have you gone mental?” Flash demanded.

“I think it’s going to explode!” Peter exclaimed. He glanced around the elevator wildly but there was nowhere safe to dispose of the alien thing. “Karen!” he shouted at his watch, “I found the alien weapon, ask Mr. Stark what I’m supposed to do with it!”

“This is an excellent course of actions,” Karen said. “I am proud of you Peter.”

“What do you mean it’s going to explode?” the guide asked.

“You’re joking right Peter? Tell me your joking,” Mr. Harrington begged.

“What do I do!?” Peter shouted. He leapt up and shoved open the hatch on the ceiling of the elevator. Peter hoped that none of his classmates noticed the moment when he hung from the ceiling by his fingertips before he pulled himself through the hatch.

The elevator shaft didn’t offer any more options than the elevator had. Peter looked up at the glass exit at the top of the shaft. He could scale the last twenty feet in a few seconds and there had to be more options up there but his power would be exposed. 

“Iron Man is on his way,” Karen said.

“Peter! What are you doing?” Mr. Harrington shouted from the elevator, echoed by several of Peter’s classmates.

“Please don’t explode!!” Peter told the glowy-thing as he set it down long enough to yank his shirt over his head, pull on his mask and kick off his shoes. 

Just as Peter picked up the device again it emitted a blue beam. It shot up. The elevator exit shattered in a hail of glass. From outside Michelle saw a crack appear in the stones capping the monument. The elevator jerked beneath Peter’s feet.

“Peter?” Mr. Harrington called.

Spider-Man glanced up at the shattered glass cage above then leaned back over the hatch. “Peter’s okay,” he told his teacher, deepening his voice. “Now let’s get the rest of you to safety.” He reached a hand down. 

“Use your webbing to reinforce the elevator first.” At the sound of Tony’s voice coming from his comm Peter sagged in relief.

“Um- Just a minute,” Spider-Man told his class. He looked around and then shot a half dozen different lines webbing the elevator to the rebar supporting the shaft. 

Up on the observation deck people were starting to lean over the edge to see what had happened.

“I’m going to shoot a couple lines up to the roof,” Spider-Man shouted. “Can you guys use them to haul everyone up?”

“Um... Yeah! Yeah, we can do that!” a man exclaimed. He grabbed several other tourists and organized them while Spider-Man set up webs to act as ropes.

Inside the elevator Mr. Harrington and the guide worked together to lift students up to Spider-Man.

“Okay,” Tony said. “I’m positioned below the elevator but just keep going. Consider me your safety net. But you’re doing fine on your own.”

“Thanks Mr. Stark,” Peter babbled as he lifted Ned up. 

Ned leaned close to Peter’s com-watch, “Hey Mr. Stark! It’s Ned! From Peter’s house? You signed my Death Star?”

“Priorities kid,” Tony said.

In just a few minutes all the students were out of the elevator. “Ladies first,” Mr. Harrington said offering his cupped hands to the tour guide.

“It’s my job, I should be last,” the guide argued.

“Guys!” Spider-Man exclaimed shaking his hand impatiently. Mr. Harrington and the guide glared at each other for a moment, then Harrington’s eyes dropped. He jumped and caught Spider-Man’s hand. 

“Don’t forget your clothes,” Tony said quietly once the last of the passengers was being hauled up the observation deck. “There’s only so long that Peter Parker can stay lost in the chaos.”

“Right now? I’m looking forward to turning eighteen, signing and losing the secret identity,” Peter said. “Not having to stop and think about keeping a secret when lives are on the line.”

“Er, about that,” Tony said. “Your aunt and I have been talking, probably better if you keep it under wraps until you’ve graduated from college. You should definitely be focused on your education until you’ve finished your degree… Being targeted by the bad guys in the middle of Finals Week? No fun.”

Peter shoved his shirt into his backpack then climbed out of the elevator shaft. He found the tour guides efficiently directing all the tourists down the stairs. Several people pointed at him as he crawled across the ceiling over their heads. Once he was in the open stairwell Peter leapt over the edge and shot a line to arrest his fall. 

Iron Man caught the webbing and hauled Peter up to where he was inspecting the elevator. “Mr. Stark?” Peter asked. 

“Hold on a second, I’m scanning you for damage,” Tony said. “You were at ground zero. And I promised your aunt quantitative proof of your okayness. There might be important data on the interaction between the suit and the energy release… Or something.”

The filters in Peter’s mask followed suit as Peter’s eyes went wide. “You were worried?”

“No! Of course not. Stay in sight, ‘kay,” Tony replied rapid fire.

“Mr. Stark, I gotta get changed back,” Peter protested. “My teacher’s gonna freak out if he can’t find me soon.”

“Right,” Tony sighed. “Go be Peter. Stay out of trouble… Are you actually capable of not running in trouble for… Let’s not be overly ambitious… Forty-eight hours? Why don’t you make it a goal?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never done that before,” Peter said.

Iron Man’s helmet jerked up. “Seriously?!?”

“Kidding!” Peter exclaimed as he kicked off the armor and dove down the stairwell. “I managed seventy-two…” He shot a line and caught himself inches from the floor. “Once!” he called up before disappearing into a shadowed nitch under the bottom landing. Tony rolled his eyes and shook his head at Peter’s antics.

A few moments later Peter shoved the mask back into his pocket, dropped to the floor and quietly joined the others being evacuated from the Monument. Outside at the bus, Mr. Harrington was looking around wildly. “Has anyone seen Peter since the elevator?” he asked nervously.

“I’m here!” Peter yelled as he ran up.

“Oh thank God,” Mr. Harrington breathed.

Ned took a deep breath then purposely bit his tongue. He looked at Peter as if he were literally ready to burst from NOT saying anything about what he knew.

Michelle’s gaze swept over Peter, lingering on his feet for a few moments. “Hn,” she said. 

“Alright,” Mr. Harrington said. “Everyone on the bus. I talked with the EMT’s and they agree we should all get a quick look-see at the nearest hospital.”

Michelle raised her hand, “Me too?”

“Yes, everyone. Just in case.”

“I wasn’t actually in the building,” Michelle pointed out.

“Just in case,” Mr. Harrington insisted but he was drowned out by the roar of repulsors as Iron Man touched down next to the bus.

“Parker,” Tony called. He held out Peter’s sneakers, “I guess Spider-Man knocked you right out of your shoes when he rescued you.”

Peter looked down at his feet and saw the red socks of the suit peeking out from the bottom of his pants. “Thanks Mr. Stark,” he said.

“I could use my favorite lab assistant to take notes, hand me tools or something,” Tony said putting a gauntleted hand on Peter’s shoulder to keep him from making a quick escape back to his class. 

Several people turned to give Flash concerned looks when the other boy start making choked gasping sounds. 

“Mr. Iron Man, I mean, Dr. Stark,” Mr. Harrington stammered. “It doesn’t matter who you are, you can’t just take off with my students! I have to bring home the exact number of students I left with, it’s essential.”

Tony glanced at Peter. “Really?” he asked.

Peter nodded regretfully. 

“FRIDAY, could you get May on the phone?” Tony asked. A moment later he said, “Mrs. Parker, you mind if I fly Peter home, given everything? … Okay. Now could you tell his teacher we’re good?” He took off his helmet and handed it to Mr. Harrington, who looked ready to faint or possibly have a heart attack from shear excitement. “Just put it on, you’ll be able to hear her.”

After a moment Mr. Harrington returned the helmet, “Everything’s in order, I’m releasing Peter to your care.”

“Can I come too, Mr. Stark?” Ned asked. 

Tony shrugged, “How about Peter’s friend from the other night?” he asked May. “... She says you have to ask _your_ parents,” he relaid a moment later. 

Flash fainted.

Tony frowned, he turned to Peter, “What’s his problem?” he asked.

Michelle shrugged, “Just the foundations of his reality crumbling.”


	8. After the Monument

“Oh my god, I’m on Tony Stark’s private plane,” Ned gushed. “I can’t believe my dad said you could give me a ride home.”

“I can’t believe your teacher made me call your parents,” Tony replied. “What good was he in that elevator? ... Not to mention letting one of his students walk around with an unstable Chitauri energy core in his backpacks.”

“Do you think Flash picked up that thing from those guys I fought the night of the party?” Peter wondered.

“Occam's Razor says yes,” Tony replied. “We should have searched the area after the fight but we were all too distracted by you nearly getting yourself killed.”

Peter flinched. “You’re still mad?”

“Hell yeah,” Tony said. “I don’t know why anyone wants to be a parent. One stupid stunt and you’ve managed to find a place in my top ten nightmares. You know that? I’ve only known you for a couple months but you going in that lake while I can’t do a damn thing because the other two miscreants hacked my suit ranks right up there with not being able to catch Pepper and seeing Rhodey caught by that bomb in Vienna.” 

Peter wilted, “I’m sorry. I just- I just wanted to be like you.”

“And I wanted you to be better,” Tony retorted sharply. He sighed, “I understand. Maybe I’m not anyone’s notion of a ‘good man’ but I spent decades living my life in a way to give proof to “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” I know how much harm I did to the world by not opposing the evils going on around me. I know how dedicated you are to not standing by and I love that about you. 

“But- but don’t- Peter, the last thing I want for you to see you end up the boy with his finger in a dam. You are NOT the emergency fix, to stand in the path of disaster. At this point I’ve spent nearly a decade doing that and trust me, it is not enough. I want you and the other brats to be the ones who fixes the goddamn root cause.”

“We’re going to die!” Ned suddenly shouted from the direction of the cockpit. “No one’s flying the plane!”

Tony rolled his eyes. “FRIDAY’s flying the plane, it’s fine,” he shouted back.

“Is he or she invisible?” Ned asked. “Because I’m pretty sure there’s no one in cockpit.”

“She’s an AI,” Tony explained impatiently. “No body.”

“Really?” Ned asked. “That is so cool!”

“I assure you, the plane is in safe hands,” FRIDAY said from the speakers.

“You should have realized,” Karen scolded. “You’ve met me after all.”

“Oh yeah, right,” Ned agreed.

Later, as Happy expertly wove through the New York traffic the calls started coming in. 

“Peter, the Princess of Wakanda is calling, shall I put her through?” Karen asked. 

“Introduce me!” Ned hissed as Peter said, “Hi Shuri!”

“Saw you on the news,” Shuri said. “Good going. And I was just thinking, the tensile strength of your webbing is good but if you let me add a little powdered vibranium…”

“Ack!!” Peter made a strangled sound, “Do you have any idea how many yards of web I go through a day?”

“My god Shuri,” Tony laughed. “I have to introduce you to Pepper. Someone who can go through a fortune faster than I can? She will be astounded.”

The girl in the holovid grinned a bit shame-faced, “Okay, maybe I resort to Vibranium a little too quickly, but it is amazingly versatile and I have access to a literal mountain of it.” 

“Go on and brag why don’t you,” Tony groused.

“Mostly I just wanted to call and tell Peter good job,” Shuri reiterated. 

“Thanks,” Peter said flushing, “I was just there you know.” He tugged Ned into the camera’s field of view, “Oh and this is my friend Ned.”

“Hi Ned,” Shuri said. “Bye Peter, I don’t want to tie up the line.”

“Hi!” Ned squeaked as Shuri sighed off.

With in seconds Karen was saying, “Harley Keener and Amadeus Cho are both calling, who shall I put through first?”

“Put ‘em both on,” Tony interjected. “So I don’t have to listen to them fight about favoritism later. If the two of them didn’t get in so much trouble together, I’d think that they hated each other.”

“Go Spidey!” Harley exclaimed first. “Was that girl you like on the elevator? Did you manage to get a kiss?”

“And you’re a hero twice,” Amadeus added. “Spider-Man may have cleared the elevator but Peter Parker noticing the bomb and trying to get it away from his classmates is trending too.”

“Really?” Peter asked.

“Oh yeah,” Ned said. He reached over Peter’s shoulder, holding up his smart phone to show Peter the growing list of responses beneath Liz Allen’s facebook post about the elevator. If anything Peter’s actions were getting more attention than Spider-Man’s follow up. “Wear a suit like Spider-Man and you’re expected to want to throw yourself in harm’s way but as far as they you’re just another kid… Who grabbed a bomb and tried to get it away from his friends. Kinda makes them wonder if anyone could be a hero, if they could make a difference if they found themselves in a spot like that.”

“Of course they can,” Harley scoffed. “I don’t mean putting on a costume and fighting the bad guys but… Let’s say you’re in the crowd when the latest super-villain attacks and someone trips and falls in front of you while everyone’s running away. You stop and give the other guy a hand up, you don’t trample them. That’s the sort of hero we all can and should be.”

Peter didn’t really hear the rest of the conversation. He assumed that he must not have been completely out of it, or that his body had kept up his end of it on autopilot because no one called him on checking out. But the only thing he could think of was the convenience store and the robbery he could have stopped. And then, somehow, Harley and Amadeus were off the line, Ned had been dropped off at his house and Happy was pretending to be just a driver. 

“Harley talked me into a panic attack once,” Tony commented.

Peter blinked at him.

“He’s a great kid and all,” Tony smirked to himself, “I mean he and I, we’ve got a connection… But, I’m just throwing it out there, he really did talk me into a panic attack. His foot and his mouth have a more intimate relationship than is medically advised.”

That startled a chuckle out of Peter.

“You okay?” Tony asked.

Peter nodded. “Yeah, I’m- I’m good.”

“What you did today? That’s exactly why I sent the suit home with you. You saved all those kids’ lives.”

“You would have saved them if I hadn’t,” Peter deflected.

“Pretty sure I would have been a couple seconds too late without you,” Tony said. “Now be gracious and accept a compliment. You did good.”

* * *

As Peter and Ned walked to their lockers the next morning, the announcements played: “This past weekend, Midtown's Academic Decathlon team defeated the country's best to win the national championship,” Betty Brant and Jason Ionello read from their script, “Later that day, they also defeated death.”

A series of quick interviews with the students from the Decathlon team came on, “Peter grabs Flash’s backpack. Explosion. Sally scream. Flash scream. Everybody screaming,” Abe Brown said. 

“So Peter jumps up and climbs out of the elevator like he’s John McClane,” Charles Murphy exclaimed. “Then Boom! Purple lasers and smoke… Spider-Man, Iron Man. It was so tight!”

“As you know, we made it out alive and that's the important thing,” a shaken Mr. Harrington said. “I couldn't bear to lose a student on a school trip. Not again.”

“Thankfully, no one was seriously injured,” Betty reported. Then she turned to Peter who was sitting between the two Media Students. “Peter, what were you thinking when you grabbed that bomb?”

“Well, um, I guess I just didn’t want it to explode in the elevator with us,” Peter stammered. “I- I- Well the elevator shaft didn’t really have anywhere to get rid of it either. Then Spider-Man showed up. And Mr. Stark made sure he - Spider-Man knew to secure the elevator. I didn’t really do that much.”

As the interview played on the screens Liz came up behind the two boys. “Brave and humble,” she said wrapping an arm around Peter’s shoulders. “My hero.”

Peter flushed bright red but before he could say anything the Principal, Mr. Morita walked up, “Mr. Parker, may I speak with you?” he asked.

“What’d you do?” Ned whispered.

“I don’t know,” Peter insisted then followed Mr. Morita to his office, “Am I in trouble?” he asked.

“Of course not,” Mr. Morita said offering Peter a chair. “There was that dip in your grades last month but you’ve recovered and we’re all happy to see your renewed engagement with your school activities. No, what I wanted to talk to you about… Um… Could you ask Mr. Stark if he- or any member of SI’s R&D department, really- could make time to speak to the school. We would gladly work around his schedule.”

“Um- yeah, sure,” Peter said. 

“Also- If you have any contact with Colonel Rhodes or the Avengers,” Mr. Morita hesitated. “I’m almost embarrassed to ask- but if anyone would be willing to retape the Captain America PSA’s that the schools in the district use, everyone would be extremely grateful. More than a few of the teachers are refusing to show them given… circumstances. Honestly, I want to send the Detention one to Steve Rogers, apparently he could use a refresher on that message.” Morita shook his head, “He certainly hasn’t lived up to my grandfather’s stories… Well, actually, the ones he’d tell when he’d had a drink or two too many make a lot more sense now.” 

Peter gave his principal a bemused stare, then shook himself. “I’ll ask Colonel Rhodes,” he promised.

That night while Peter and May were having dinner a news broadcast interrupted Jeopardy, “After a brief battle on the Staten Island Ferry FBI Agents failed to apprehend a distributor of Enhanced weapons, despite support from the Avengers’ Sam Wilson,” the News Reader said while a brief chip showed the Vulture slicing through the tip of one of Sam Wilson’s wings with some sort of laser gun and sending the Falcon spinning into the water. “At this time it is unknown how much of the increase in Enhanced crime can be attributed to this one organization…”

“Karen, call Sam. Is he okay?” Peter exclaimed in a rush.

“Mr. Wilson is no worse for wear following his dip,” Karen reported. “However, JARVIS informs me that he is still being debriefed and cannot take your call. I will leave a message so that he may reassure you of his well-being later. Also several of the FBI agents got a clear look at the Vulture’s face as well as that of one of his associates. I will forward the sketches to your email account. As he appears to work out of your neighborhood it is possible that you may encounter them.”

“Thanks Karen,” Peter said with a sigh. “I wish I’d been there to help out.”

“I’m glad you weren’t,” May said. “That laser thing went through Mr. Wilson’s metal wings like butter, I don’t want to think about what it could have done to you.”

Peter whinced. “It’s going to be me out there some day,” he said. 

“I know,” May replied unhappily. “And I won’t have any choice but to get used to the idea that I might lose you too someday. But today? Today I’m happy you were safe.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spidey trying to hold the ferry together might be the iconic scene of SM:H but it's also the culmination of Tony's failure to make it apparent that he was paying attention to Peter and Peter's failure to hear what Tony was telling him. So out it goes. The adults got through to Peter before the situation reached nuclear meltdown stage.
> 
> The Wiki page identifies Peter's principal as being Jim Morita of the Howling Commando's grandson.


	9. Bringing the Roof Down

Peter stumbled out of the backseat of Liz’s dad’s car in a state of shock. _‘Liz’s dad is the Vulture. The Vulture knows who I am.’_ He walked slowly into the transformed cafeteria.

“Peter, are you okay?” Liz asked worriedly when she noticed his dazed expression and chalk-white face.

“He threatened my aunt,” Peter said.

Liz’s eyes went wide. “My dad?” she asked in disbelief.

“Now that is going way too far for a shovel talk,” one of her friends whispered in the background.

“He threatened May. And I can’t not go,” Peter said as he fled the dance. He took a moment to retrieve a spare set of spinners and his old costume from beneath a bank of lockers. _‘I’ll swing by home, warn May and grab the suit,’_ he thought as he left by the back door, still pulling on his web-shooters. _‘Why did I think it was a good idea to avoid temptation and leave the suit at home?’_

Peter was completely unprepared for the massive blow that sent him flying across the parking lot the moment he stepped out of the school. “He gave you a choice,” the new Shocker said. “You chose wrong.” He kept the blows come hard and fast, preventing Peter from gathering his scattered wits or retaliating until Ned intervened, using one of the web-shooters to catch Shocker’s fist mid-punch. After that Peter was quickly able to turn the fight around.

“Ned! You have a phone!” Peter realized.

“Ye-ah,” Ned replied with a confused frown. “So do you.”

“I left mine in Liz’s dad’s car. Liz’s dad is the Vulture,” Peter explained breathlessly. 

“Whoa!” Ned exclaimed as he fished his phone out of his pocket.

Peter snatched the phone out of his hand and dialed. “FRIDAY, I need whoever’s on call,” he exclaimed a moment later. “The Vulture is Liz’s dad. He threatened my aunt!”

“Peter, slow down,” FRIDAY ordered. “I’m connecting you Happy.”

“Happy?” Peter asked frantically. 

“A large sinkhole opened in Central L.A., a group of Enhanced teenagers are being blamed. All the Avengers are there, even Rescue, Hill and Palamar are assisting,” FRIDAY reported. “S.U.D.D.S. non-combatants are in Vienna preparing to present their prototypes to the UN before large scale implementation. I’m putting you through to Happy.”

“Spider-kid, aren’t you supposed to be at a dance tonight?” Happy asked a moment later.

“I am at the dance!” Peter exclaimed. “Liz’s dad is the Vulture! The Vulture drove me to the dance! And he knows I’m Spider-Man! He had a gun. He threatened May!”

“Okay,” Happy said seriously. “Does your date’s father have a name?”

“Yes!” Peter exclaimed then deflated. “I don’t know it…”

“Did you get a license plate number?”

“I left my phone in his backseat,” Peter offered.

“Okay,” Happy sighed. “It’s irregular but we’ll make it work. I’ll give the police your information. You stay at the dance; once I’ve picked up your aunt we’ll swing by and get you. I want both of you safe at the Tower until this Vulture is in custody.”

“The police?” Peter’s voice cracked. “After what that guy did to those FBI agents?”

“The FBI and the Falcon,” Happy reminded. “Don’t get involved. We’ve got a location, a name- Or we will have a name. -FRIDAY can you look up Liz, Elizabeth -um-”

“Allen,” Peter supplied.

“Elizabeth Allen and find out what her dad’s called,” Happy said without missing a beat. “We’ve got this in the bag. At worst the police decide he’s too much for them and they put it on the back-burner until L.A.’s dealt with.”

“He’s a supervillain!” Peter protested. “Who knows what he’s doing right now? What if he finds my phone? What if he ditches his car? What if he realizes we’re on to him and doesn’t go home? My phone’s going to run out of batteries in a couple hours! What if-”

“Okay!” Happy broke into Peter’s increasingly agitated babbling. “FRIDAY, pick up Peter’s suit and take it to him then trace his phone and give him a lift to the location. Peter, are you listening to me?”

“Yes sir!” Peter said eagerly.

“Plant one of your bugs on him, then get the hell out of there. Whatever he’s up to, it is not more important than your safety. The guy sells illegal weapons, he’s not trying to blow up the city or anything. If he gets one more shipment from Damage Control, we take it back when we take him it. Tag him and run. Let the police or the Avengers deal with apprehending him.” 

“I swear,” Peter promised. “I won’t engage.” 

Five minutes later Ned watched with awe as an empty Iron Man armor, landed on the roof of their school under FRIDAY’s direction and handed Peter the silver Spidey-suit case. Peter quickly traded his homemade costume for the armored one Tony had given him then he climbed onto the armor’s back and hitched a ride to the Vulture’s hideout. 

“I’ll be waiting out here,” FRIDAY assured Peter. “This armor isn’t designed for stealth.

“Thanks,” Peter said as he jogged toward the old warehouse Toomes had parked in front of. He let himself in through a window expecting to find a busy supervillain toy factory inside only to be greeted by stillness and emptiness. A single pool of light led him to Toomes. 

Peter carefully raised his wrist preparing to fire a tracker from the shadows when Toomes turned. “Hey Pete!” he called. “Why don’t you stop hiding. I think this calls for a face-to-face conversation.” 

“Peter, I do not believe this is a good idea,” Karen whispered in his ear.

“He already knows,” Peter mouthed back. “How much worse can it get?”

“You should run,” Karen instructed. 

Peter lowered his arm and stepped into the light. “It's over. I've got you,” he said as Karen hissed in his ear, “I’m informing Mr. Hogan and FRIDAY.”

Toomes chuckled. “You know, I gotta tell you, Pete… I really, really admire your grit. I see why Liz likes you. I do. When you first came to the house I wasn't sure. I thought, ‘Really?’ But I get it now.”

“How could you do this to her?” Peter demanded.

“To her?” Toomes shook his head. “I'm not doing anything to her, Pete. I'm doing this for her.”

“Do you know how many people in Queens alone have been hurt by black market Enhanced weapons?” Peter asked. “I looked it up: Eight-four people dead or seriously injured in the last four years. Now I don’t know how many of those weapons are yours but… You wouldn’t hide what you’re doing if you didn’t know that it’d make Liz sick if she knew.”

Toomes grimaced, “I do try to keep it out of our neighborhood but some people just don’t listen.”

“Like it makes it better if they die in- in Manitoba instead of Queens!” Peter exclaimed.

“Peter, you're young,” Toomes said condescendingly. “You don't understand how the world works.”

“You have no idea how tired I am of hearing that,” Peter huffed. “I understand that selling weapons to criminals is wrong.”

“How do you think your buddy Stark paid for that tower? Or any of his little toys?” Toomes asked.

“By selling weapons to US government,” Peter said. “Or do YOU think that Obadiah Stane put the money he made selling on the black market back into the company instead of using of… Say, using it to line his pockets. Tony Stark did NOT sell to criminals or terrorists and when he figured out that they were getting ahold of his weapons anyway he shut down SI’s weapons division… And two years later the company was more profitable than ever. It’s a matter of public record.”

“Governments, criminals, what’s the difference?” Toomes shrugged. “Those people, Pete, those people up there… the rich and the powerful, they do whatever they want. Guys like us like you and me? They don't care about us.”

“Right, Mr. Stark doesn’t care about me,” Peter snorted. “That’s why he gives me a multi-million dollar suit AND why he’s in league with my aunt trying to make me do normal kid stuff and stick to training instead of going out and kicking villain ass. He didn’t care about who used his weapons as long as they paid him, that’s why he shut down SI’s weapon division and figured out other ways to make money EIGHT YEARS AGO. He doesn’t care when people like YOU arm crooks with crazy alien tech and someone has to fight them and people get hurt, him not caring is why we’ve got the Maria Stark Foundation and Damage Control trying to clean up after the fights the RIGHT way, not the way you do it where you just put this crap back on the streets in new and worse forms. He doesn’t care, that’s why the Avengers and S.U.D.D.S. are working with the UN to respect established legal systems-” 

“Okay kid,” Toomes broke into Peter’s rant. “I’m not going to argue that Stark hasn’t taken an interest in you… Like a stray puppy he found and got attached to. And okay, Stark’s been trying to clean up his image, he tries to take care of the people he sees hurting because of him… But he didn’t see me did he? He didn’t see what his Damage Control and those assholes in City Hall were doing to my business. _They_ had a contract with me and _they_ changed the laws so that I couldn’t sell the stuff I recovered. Who cares that I was being bled dry between those two facts? Not Tony Stark. Not the government. They don’t care about ME!”

“Why are you telling me this?” Peter demanded.

“Because I want you to understand. And…” The Vulture wings came at Peter from behind. Peter dove to the side, narrowly escaping being run down. “I needed a little time to get her airborne.”

The wings banked, slicing through one of the supporting columns as they returned for a second pass. Peter dodged again and again, narrowly escaping being sliced in half as the wings crashed through column after column in the confined space. “FRIDAY is coming,” Karen assured Peter.

“I'm sorry Peter,” Toomes said. 

“What are you talking about?” Peter asked. “That thing hasn't even touched me yet.”

“True,” Toomes said.

“Peter! The structural integrity of the-” Karen began. 

Toomes watched as Peter was buried under tons of concrete, “Then again… wasn't really trying to.”

“Chief, they're powering up engines,” Mason called in.

“Okay.” Toomes said as he turned his back on the buried teen and walked away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, this was going to be the last chapter but then I got to Toomes’ little speech and decided it should get the focus of concluding a chapter. So one more for the final battle and aftermath… While I try not to be totally distracted by Endgame Trailer thoughts.


	10. Assemble

“Peter,” Karen cried once the roof stopped falling on them. “FRIDAY was caught in the collapse too. She says she can’t move without risking further destabilization which might crush you. Mr. Hogan has your aunt, they are enroute now.”

“Call Amadeus,” Peter gasped.

“Mr. Cho has been grounded from all contact with SI servers for another six weeks,” Karen said. Then she felt J.A.R.V.I.S.’s code brush up against hers.

//While FRIDAY can calculate from the observable variables that any movement on her part stands a high chance of crushing young Master Parker, Master Cho can intuit variables that are not observed and determine a more favorable outcome,// J.A.R.V.I.S. informed her. //I am contacting him now with the data from your and FRIDAY’s sensors.//

//Oh,// Karen said. //This is a time to break the rules. How do you know that?//

//Practice,// J.A.R.V.I.S. replied. //Experience. The same is true for them.//

Several moments later JARVIS relaid the call from Amadeus to Karen, who passed it on to Peter. “Pete, FRIDAY’s right,” Amadeus said. “You’re better off rescuing her rather than vise-versa, if only because she’s less squishy.”

“So what do I do?” Peter asked.

“Okay, your head’s twelve clock. The first thing you need to do is move toward two o’clock, two feet,” Amadeus said.

Peter hissed as he felt something sharp scraping across his back as he followed instructions. “I’m there.”

“Brace yourself,” Amadeus said. “Push up, the slab above you will pivot. Not easily but not impossible, not for you.”

Peter groaned with effort as he shoved the huge section of concrete roof off and climbed out of the ruins of the wearhouse. 

Once he was free he saw the Vulture perched above him, eyes on Stark Towers… And on the specialized cargo plane in the process of lifting off from the Tower. As Peter watched Toomes launched himself into the air after the plane. “The prototypes for the UN, they’re flying them out tonight,” Peter realized. “That’s what he’s after.”

“FRIDAY, Master Parker is clear,” J.A.R.V.I.S. said. “Please provide air support for the transport plane.” 

A moment later the Iron Man armor blasted out of the debris of the demolished warehouse, in pursuit of the Vulture. The two fliers spun and twisted in a mid-air dual. “FRI! Give me control!” Harley broke into the line. “He’s-” the teen broke off with a groan as the armor was engulfed in an explosion. “He’s suckering you,” Harley finished as the armor fell. 

“Rebooting suit systems,” FRIDAY said.

“Attempting evasive maneuvers with the transport deemed ineffective,” J.A.R.V.I.S. reported.

“We can’t let him take Tony’s weapons!” Harley protested. “It’d kill him to have that happen again.”

There was a breathless pause as the three AI’s considered Harley’s assessment. “No,” J.A.R.V.I.S. decided. “Your safety is more important… The Vulture has successfully boarded the transport. I have lost control of it.”

“Trying to take it back,” Amadeus said. “Fuck! They’re blocking our signal, replacing it with their own.”

“I would bet that my Remote Access Kimoyo Beads are better than whatever they have,” Shuri interjected.

“Are you all online?” Peter asked.

“Yes,” Shuri replied. “As soon this Vulture spotted you. We’re your friends, we worry.”

“Sure, you’ve got better toys than these guys,” Amadeus dragged them back onto topic. “Fat lot of good that does us, we don’t have any of them.”

“I may have installed a few in Spider-Man’s suit,” Shuri said. “Karen, code RAK.”

Peter jumped as Droney activated himself, lifting off from the suit to hover nearby. “He can’t catch a plane,” Peter pointed out. 

“I can,” FRIDAY said as she landed nearby. The Iron Man armor was scorched from the explosion and there was a serious dent in the back plate that made Peter very happy that the armor had been empty when it fell. She held out a hand and Droney deposited two of the Remote Access beads in her palm. 

“They’re effective once they are in contact with the vehicle,” Shuri said. 

As FRIDAY shot after the transport plane, Peter raced after her, running until he found buildings tall enough to swing from. 

“My beads and his tech are canceling each other out!” Shuri exclaimed a few moments later. “No one is flying the plane!”

“FRIDAY, give me the suit,” Harley ordered. “Before that plane crashes in the middle of Brooklyn.” 

Peter glanced up for a moment as he tried to intercept the falling plane and saw Iron Man land on one wing, forcing the plane to bank before it crashed into a skyscraper. “Aim for the beach!” Peter shouted into his comm.

“Need to bleed some speed,” Harley replied. He flew the armor to the nose of the transport and started using his repulsors for breaking. 

Peter was still three miles out when the transport crashed into the beach. “Armor’s down hard,” Harley reported.

“Mr. Hogan has dropped Ms. Parker off a the 61st Precinct, he is enroute along with police support,” J.A.R.V.I.S. put in. “You will have their support in five minutes. You are cleared to engage.”

“Assuming anyone survived,” Amadeus said nonchalantly as he surveyed the data coming in from the crash.

“Oh he survived,” Harley said. “The bad guys never just conveniently die for you.”

“That’s Liz’s dad you’re talking about,” Peter snapped angrily. He got as much altitude as he could on his last swing, making the most of his last leap before running the final leg to the beach. 

Cautiously Peter made his way into the wreckage. The sand was littered with burning chunks of plane and spilled cargo crates. Before long he saw the Vulture’s silhouette, slowly walking through the smoke. The wind shifted and for a moment they just stared at each other. “Hey Pedro,” Toomes said.

“I- Before- When you dropped that building on me,” Peter said. “I should have told you. I didn’t tell Liz about me being Spider-Man or about what you do for a living but I told the Avengers when recognized you. So -um- the Avengers, the FBI, the police? They all know Liz Allen’s dad is the guy who’s been stealing from Damage Control, weaponizing the stuff and putting it back on the streets. They know it’s you.”

Toomes lips drew back in a snarl as he stalked toward Peter.

“And I’m sorry Liz is going to have to go through that; her dad being outed as a criminal,” Peter said taking a step backwards. “But I’m also sorry for the families of the six FBI agents who died when they went up against you on the ferry. And I’m sorry for the eighty-four people who died or were injured in Queens and for their families and the God knows how many other people who’ve been killed because you arm stupid creeps; you put these fantastic weapons in the hands of people who don’t care about anything but themselves! You had to be stopped and I’m not sorry I identified you for the police, and the Avengers.”

“I should have shot you back at the dance,” Toomes said. 

Peter shrugged, “But you didn’t. Killing me now, it won’t change that it’s out there: People are dead because of Liz Allen’s dad. It’s not a secret any more. Killing more police or FBI agents, like on that ferry? It won’t undo that they know, it’ll just be more bad things Liz Allen’s dad is known for doing. So we can fight again- Here. Now. -And maybe you kick my ass again. But afterwards? They’ll still know… And Liz and her mom? They’re still going to be caught in the fallout. And maybe even worse in your eyes, Liz and her mom are going to know what you’ve done. You can’t escape that. The real choice you’ve got to make is: Do you try to run away and leave them to face everything on their own. Or do you stay and face it yourself?”

“It’s not that simply Pete,” Toomes said. “Even if I surrender myself, it doesn’t mean that Liz and Doris won’t end up catching flack.”

“I know,” Peter sighed. “That’s what I meant when I asked you how you could do this to Liz. ‘Cause maybe you want to blame me for figuring you out but- Well- Maybe I didn’t hide your crimes- But I sure didn’t commit them.”

“I didn’t have a choice,” Toomes said. “It was the only thing I could do to support my family.”

“You aren’t the only person who’s ever been in debt or out of work!” Peter exclaimed. “There are tons of people out there who found themselves in your place and who didn’t turn to crime in response. So -um- Do we have to fight or will you stop? I can hear the police sirens coming. If they don’t find you here they’ll go to your house next. You can’t keep hiding from what you’ve done.”

“That’s rich coming from a kid in a halloween mask,” Toomes said.

“Yeah? And what’s the first thing YOU did when you figured out who I was?” Peter demanded. “You pointed a gun at me and said you’d kill my aunt! There’s a line between hiding who you are to get away with stuff and to doing it to keep innocents from getting dragged into it… And honestly I don’t know where that line is, exactly, but you are on the wrong side of it. I think you know that. So are we doing this or not?”

Toomes sighed then held up his hand and sat heavily on one of the crates.

* * *

“So… No boss battle,” Ned tried not to sound disappointed.

Peter shook his head, “He did a lot of bad things but he really did care about doing what was best for Liz.”

“Right, he just didn’t think about stuff like the elevator, Liz and the rest of us nearly dying because of stuff he stole from Damage Control and put back on the street,” Ned said.

“Yeah, pretty much,” Peter agreed.

Tony Stark pulled up in front of the school in a flashy convertible. Peter gulped and jogged over. “Mr. Stark! Am I in trouble? Because Happy normally picks me up on Fridays. And I haven’t seen you since before the dance and your plane crashing. And-”

“Breathe kid,” Tony instructed. He glanced past Peter, “Star Wars, you coming?” 

Ned’s eyes went wide. “Oh hell yeah!” he exclaimed running over and climbing into the back seat. 

“Seat belts buckled?” Tony asked once both boys were in the car. “I don’t have to sign you out or anything?”

Peter shook his head, practically vibrating from nerves. “You’re sure I’m not in trouble? I mean I haven’t seen you-”

“A) Sinkhole in L.A. and six runaways I still haven’t managed to even talk to. B) Planetary Defense planning in Vienna. C) Damage Control verifying their entire inventory so we know what Toomes put out there. I’ve been a little busy,” Tony said as he pointed the car towards the Avengers Compound. “But I wanted to make time to tell you that you did good, kid,”

“What?” Peter squeaked in disbelief.

“You talked down a bonafide super-villain,” Tony said. “Reminded him, made him hear, that he’s accountable to more than just himself. If he manages to hang on to the thought of being someone his daughter would look up to, maybe we never have to fight him again. Good job.” 

A big, disbelieving smile split Peter’s face.

Tony glanced over his shoulder at Ned, “And you, way to watch your friend’s back. I talked to your parents, about how this usually doesn’t end up being a one time thing, they signed off on you spending weekends at the Compound so next time Spider-Man stuff spills over into Peter’s school life you’ll be have better idea of what to, and what not to, do. Aka how to be helpful while not ending up dead or a hostage.”

“I’m going to be your guy in the chair!” Ned gushed to Peter.

Three weekends later, Michelle Jones showed up at the compound gates. “So, I gather this is about more than putting on a costume and punching people,” she said, glancing around at the labs curiously as Tony escorted her inside. “More… About discovering and refining what we can do to make the world better.”

Tony stared at her. “Are you psychic or just scary? ...Your boys have a bet,” he said.

Michelle grinned, “Does that mean I’m in?”

* * *

* * *

Dr. Stephen Strange walked into Tony’s office at Stark Tower, his cloak fluttering around him.

Tony looked him up and down, “Harry Potter, I presume?” he remarked. “You know, you’d think I’d remember you making an appointment with me before I flew halfway around the world trying to find you... Your lot anyway.” 

“Severus Snape has the right initials,” Strange replied. “Take that as you will... We weren’t certain we wanted to talk to you. So I had a few rumors planted to lead you to a party hoping you’d get distracted.”

“Of course you did,” Tony said bitterly. “Because that’s all I care about right?”

Strange shrugged apologetically, “Instead a kid in trouble grabbed your attention and I realized that we did want to talk with you after all.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Meanwhile, Tony introduces Michelle to Pepper and Darcy. They immediately adopt her, everyone is terrified.


End file.
